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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/claimsofjewstoeqOOIeesiala 


THE 


CLAIMS   OF  THE  JEWS 


TO  AN 


EQUALITY  OF  EIGHTS, 


ILLUSTRATED 


IN    A    SERIES    OF    LETTERS 


EDITOR   OF  THE   PHILADELPHIA  GAZETTE. 


BY    ISAAC    LEESER. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRINTED  BY  C.  SHERMAN  &,  CO. 

5601. 


StacK 
Annex 

5 

074 
641 

INTRODUCTION. 


The  following  series  of  letters,  written  during  the  course  of 
last  winter,  and  then  published  in  the  Philadelphia  Gazette,  of 
which  Willis  Gaylord  Clark,  Esq.  is  editor,  owes  its  origin 
chiefly,  as  is  stated  in  the  first  number,  to  a  variety  of  illiberal 
and  at  times  unfounded  remarks  which  were  put  in  circulation 
in  various  forms  for  some  years  past,  mostly  originating  how- 
ever in  different  English  Reviews,  under  the  guise  of  criticisms 
on  various  new  works.  Prominent  among  these  publications 
stands  the  London  Quarterly  Review  of  January,  1839,  as  will 
appear  from  several  extracts  subjoined.  It  is  singular  enough 
that  an  article  emanating  from  this  celebrated  periodical,  which 
appeared  in  July,  1828,  should  have  caused  me  to  appear  before 
the  public,  the  second  time  I  ever  ventured  to  offer  any  thing  to 
the  press,  with  an  extended  defence  of  our  people  and  of  our 
religion,  which  has  since  given  rise  to  the  "  Jews  and  Mosaic 
Law,"  which  was  published  seven  years  ago.  It  is  not  likely, 
that  the  Reviewer  ever  saw  my  strictures ;  but  these  repeated 
attacks,  proceeding  from  the  organ  of  one  of  the  great  parties 
of  Great  Britain,  prove  to  my  satisfaction  at  least,  that  the 
same  spirit  of  disinclination  (to  use  a  mild  term)  towards  us  as 
a  separate  religious  society  does  yet  prevail  with  the  same 
activity  now  as  during  the  ages  of  persecution.  Were  it  now 
that  the  malign  influence  were  to  be  difliused  in  England  only, 
it  might  possibly  be  advisable  not  to  notice  it  in  this  country. 
But  the  fact  of  the  very  extended  circulation  of  British  Reviews 
through  various  modes  of  republication,  renders  them  by  no 
means  antagonists  who  may  be  safely  despised  or  passed  over 
with  silent  contempt.  I  am  naturally  averse,  like  most  Israel- 
ites, to  bring  our  grievances  before  the  general  public,  who  feel, 


2111299 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

for  the  greater  part  at  all  events,  a  perfect  indifference,  if  not 
something  worse,  for  the  subject.  It  is  therefore  highly  proba- 
ble that  I  would  have  suffered  the  several  unfounded  publica- 
tions referred  to  to  pass  unnoticed  :  had  it  not  been  for  several 
acts  of  illiberality  proceeding  from  persons  in  our  immediate 
vicinity,  whose  conduct  I  considered  deserving  of  animadver- 
sion. I  however  leave  their  names  and  stations  blank,  not 
wishing  to  strive  against  individuals,  but  against  the  illiberal 
principles  of  which,  being  a  Jew,  I  have  a  right  to  complain. 
This  concealment  does  not,  however,  proceed  from  fear ;  I  am 
no  moral  coward,  which  will  be  evident  from  the  fact  that  at 
different  times  when  I  thought  myself  compelled  to  appear  on 
controverted  matters,  I  either  wrote  under  my  own  name,  as 
was  the  case  with  these  papers,  or  under  an  assumed  title 
which  was  well  known  to  all  having  the  least  acquaintance 
with  me.  But  it  is  only  principles  which  the  Jews  should  com- 
bat, and  the  addition  of  names  may  give  a  colour  of  personality 
to  the  subject,  without  enhancing  either  the  truth  of  our  argu- 
ments, or  being  an  additional  motive  to  silence  those  who  may 
perhaps  unintentionally  have  done  us  injury.  Besides  this,  it  is 
against  the  universal  spirit  of  proselytizing  the  Jews  that  we 
should  protest ;  and  its  being  exhibited  by  individuals,  no  mat- 
ter how  greatly  elevated,  is  only  the  occasional  manifestations 
or  something  like  symptoms  of  this  moral  mania.  If  necessity 
should  demand  it,  there  will  be  no  hesitation  displayed  by  me 
or  any  independent  son  of  Israel,  to  speak  directly  and  to  say 
to  any  opponent :  "  Thou  art  the  man  !"  but  for  the  present  it 
is  best  to  state  our  grievances  stripped  of  all  personality  ;  and 
perhaps  it  may  cause  those  persons  w^ho  have  been  remiss  in 
neighbourly  kindness  to  repent  and  sin  no  more  against  the 
laws  of  good- will  and  brotherly  love. 

Some  persons  may  object  to  the  republication  of  my  letters, 
because  in  America  the  Jew  has  no  occasion  to  advocate  his 
claims  to  equal  rights,  since  he  is  upon  a  perfect  equality  with 
his  Christian  neighbour.  This  is  true  in  law ;  but  we  are  a 
very  small  minority,  living  in  detached  bodies  among  those 
holding  opinions  differing  from  ours ;  and  it  is  therefore  our 
duty,  if  possible,  to  disabuse  our  neighbours  of  any  unfounded 
suspicions  they  might  be  induced  to  adopt  concerning  us,  if 


INTRODUCTION.  ^  5 

every  slander  were  left  unnoticed,  which  might  furnish  just 
grounds  for  the  idea  that  the  allegations  such  a  libellous  publi- 
cation contai  s  were  not  susceptible  of  denial.  Moreover, 
being  equals  in  law,  we  ought  not  to  be  pointed  at  with  the 
finger  of  vulgar  prejudice  and  odium  as  members  of  the  Israel- 
itish  people ;  and  we  have  a  solemn  duty  resting  upon  us  to 
protest  against  the  schemes  of  seducing  our  members  to  desert 
the  ancient  standard  under  which  for  thousands  of  years  we 
have  ourselves  travelled  the  road  of  salvation,  and  induced 
countless  millions  to  follow  us  in  the  same  blessed  path.  For 
what  is  Christianity  but  an  emanation  of  the  Jewish  law,  ad- 
mitting its  separate  divinity  as  claimed  in  the  gospels  1  what  is 
the  law  of  Mahommed  but  a  similar  imitation  1  Who  will  deny 
that  the  world  is  largely  indebted  to  us  for  much  that  is  good 
and  noble  ?  And  still  there  seems  to  be  a  constant  desire  to 
break  asunder  the  links  of  that  mighty,  though  apparently 
feeble  chain  which  binds  the  present  time  to  the  ancient  days, 
and  to  remove  the  sole  supporters  of  the  old  dispensation  from 
the  face  of  the  earth.  If  deniers  of  all  revelation  were  to  attempt 
this  hopeless  scheme,  we  might  pardon  their  perseverance ;  be- 
cause the  existence  of  the  Jews  must  always  be  a  stumbling- 
block  to  the  empire  of  unbelief.  But  I  cannot  discover  a  single 
feasible  reason  why  Christians  should  endeavour  to  annihilate 
our  people  by  either  force,  bribery,  or  persuasion.  For  what 
evidence  could  they  furnish  to  unbelievers  of  the  truth  of  God's 
word,  if  the  original  recipients  thereof  should  no  more  be  in 
existence  ?  In  every  book  almost  of  the  Bible  there  are  con- 
tained glorious  promises  for  the  Lord's  people :  the  Christians 
as  well  as  Jews  must  admit  the  truth  of  these  announcements; 
and  therefore  the  only  stay  of  Christianity  is  removed,  the  mo- 
ment that  the  Jewish  nation  is  no  more  in  existence.  It  is 
therefore  confessedly  not  advisable  to  exterminate  again,  either 
by  force,  bribery,  or  persuasion,  the  entire  Jewish  body ;  but 
let  us  ask  those  so  anxious  for  our  conversion,  what  good  can 
be  derived  from  the  apostacy  of  single  families  or  individuals? 
You  may  say,  that  they  are  brought  unto  salvation  by  acknow-  i 
ledging  the  atonement  through  Christ,  which  is  the  doctrine  of  I 
your  religion,  and  that  you  are  bound  to  extend  this  belief 
wherever  you  can.  (Mark  xvi.  15,  16.)     But  do  you  mean  to 


6        0  INTRODUCTION. 

say,  that  the  word  of  God,  as  contained  in  the  law  of  Moses 
and  as  practised  by  the  Jews,  is  not  sufficient  to  insure  salva- 
tion 1  Do  you  wish  to  have  us  believe,  that  the  Almighty 
mocked  us  with  a  deceitful  hope  of  life  when  he  gave  us  his 
statutes,  laws,  commandments,  judgments,  and  ordinances  for 
our  government  ?  I  do  not  mean  to  enter  into  a  long  investiga- 
tion, and  to  quote  thousands  of  biblical  texts  to  fortify  our  argu- 
ments ;  but  simply  to  state,  that  to  the  minds  of  Jews  it  appears 
a  perfect  absurdity  to  assert  that  the  Bible  is  not  sufficient  for 
salvation,  until  Christians  can  prove  from  a  direct  passage  con- 
tained in  the  Old  Testament  that  another  requirement  of  faith 
than  what  it  ostensibly  demands  is  necessary  to  make  us 
children  of  everlasting  happiness.  All  practicable  deeds  of 
mercy  are  contained  in  the  Old  Testament ;  all  the  duties  of 
civil  life  are  contained  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  all  the  items 
of  faith  are  contained  in  the  Old  Testament,  saving  only  the 
vicarious  atonement  through  the  blood  of  a  mediator.  Now  it 
must  be  proved  by  those  professing  the  latter  doctrines,  before 
they  set  out  to  convert  Jews,  that  Abraham,  Isaacj  Jacob, 
Moses,  Aaron,  Joshua,  David,  Elijah,  and  all  the  holy  men  of 
our  people,  not  to  mention  those  of  other  nations,  are  either 
doomed  to  everlasting  punishment,  or  that  they  absolutely  be- 
lieved in  the  Christian  doctrines  by  which  they  were  saved. 
We  will  therefore  contend  that  we  cannot  go  astray  if  we 
believe  as  Moses  believed,  and  that  there  is  no  occasion  to 
snatch  single  Jews  from  a  condemnation  which  has  no  exist- 
ence, if  we  take  the  evident  words  of  Scripture  for  our  guide. — 
But  admitting  even  that  you  were  right  in  your  position  about 
converting  Jews,  then  it  would  of  necessity  apply  with  double 
force  to  the  whole  people;  and  here  we  would  have  the  obvious 
contradiction  to  the  promises  of  the  Bible,  of  the  maintenance  of 
the  seed  of  Jacob  as  a  distinct  nation;  for  no  one  will  commit 
the  absurdity  to  say,  that  this  distinctive  character  can  be  pre- 
served, after  an  amalgamation  has  taken  place  in  belief,  races, 
and  legislation,  for  by  this  means  all  traces  of  the  Jews  would 
be  lost  in  the  course  of  a  few  generations. 

We  will  also  ask :  "  Have  the  converted  Jews,  and  the  num- 
ber is  sufficiently  large  to  enable  you  to  form  an  opinion,  been 
better  men,  better  citizens  or  more  religious  than  those  who 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

abided  by  the  ancestral  faith  ?"  We  challenge  the  proof, 
although  some  men  of  distinction  among  us,  and  some  women 
of  the  best  families  have  deserted  us,  in  order  that  they  might 
be  mingled  up  with  the  majority,  for  the  sake  of  advantageous 
marriages,  for  the  sake  of  a  higher  station  in  society,  for  the 
sake  of  offices  and  preferment,  for  the  sake  of  saving  their  lives 
during  persecution,  and  some  few  perhaps  from  conviction. 
Yes,  we  challenge  the  comparison,  even  with  the  humble  and 
oppressed  among  us !  for  we  can  produce  from  every  class  of 
our  people  a  display  of  resignation,  forbearance,  firm  faith,  and 
unshaken  hope ; — parental  tenderness,  kindness  to  enemies  even, 
and  a  disinterested  relinquishment  of  temporal  advantages  for 
the  sake  of  truth,  which  will  put  to  shame  the  bitterest  revilers 
of  our  dispersed  nation.  Moderation  and  sobriety  are  acknow- 
ledged characteristics  of  Jews ;  and  the  many  noble  famihes 
that  quitted  Spain  and  other  inimical  countries,  leaving  all  their 
wealth  behind,  that  they  might  worship  their  God,  as  their  con- 
science required  of  them,  are  proof  enough  of  the  noble  bearing 
of  a  genuine  Israelite. — And  here  I  cannot  help  transcribing  in 
confirmation  of  these  remarks,  a  portion  of  an  article  from  a 
late  English  Magazine,  wherein  the  writer  bears  an  honourable 
testimony  to  some  excellent  traits  in  our  character,  although  it 
would  seem,  that  he  is  by  no  means  prepossessed  in  our  favour, 
which  fact  will  appear  from  his  words  themselves.  "  If  the 
Jew  has  many  vices  natural  to  a  people  degraded  by  long  op- 
pression, as  well  as  by  a  most  vicious  education,*  which  instils 

*  It  is  a  favourite  theme  with  many  writers  who  treat  of  the  Jews,  to 
descant  upon  their  defective  education,  and  to  assert  that  the  hatred  of  other 
religions  is  a  principle  early  inculcated.  It  is  truly  laughable  however  to 
observe  the  manner  in  which  these  charges  are  brought  forward.  Some- 
thing is  said  about  dissimulation  being  taught  to  hide  this  hatred,  and  con- 
sequently a  person  not  a  Jew  would  find  it  difficult  to  discover  the  existence 
of  this  latent  malevolence.  I  cannot  of  course  answer  for  the  remote  coua* 
tries  of  Poland,  Russia,  and  Ottoman  Empire,  whether  the  system  of  Jewish 
education  there  is  really  so  defective,  as  here  represented,  since  I  have  no 
personal  knowledge  of  either,  and  cannot  speak  from  printed  documents;  but 
as  far  as  relates  to  Germany,  England,  France,  the  United  States,  and  other 
parts  of  America,  I  can  venture  to  pronounce  an  emphatic  and  unequivocal 
denial  of  any  such  induction  of  the  youthful  mind  into  bigotry  and  religious 
intolerance.     Our  system  does  not  teach  illiberality ;   though  there  is  no 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

into  the  young  not  only  a  strong  prejudice  but  even  a  violent 
hatred  against  all  other  religions,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
teaches  them  to  dissimulate  such  sentiments  under  the  mask  of 
cringing  obsequiousness, — if  he  is  mean,  greedy,  insensible  to 
any  considerations  of  honour,  and  with  apparently  no  other  ob- 
ject in  life  than  lucre,  he  still  ofteiv  betrays  qualities  of  a 
NOBLE  KIND.  He  has  a  strong  religious  feeling,  which  keeps 
him  up  in  all  the  adverse  circumstan.ces  of  life,  and  he  frequently 
displays  the  most  admirable  resignation  amidst  the  greatest  re- 
verses of  fortune.  Many  a  Jew  who  trembles  at  the  loss  of  a 
sixpence,  and  would  squabble  for  hours  in  order  to  secure  some 
trifling  gain,  bears  without  complaint  the  loss  of  a  fortune,  in 
amassing  which  his  whole  life  has  been  engaged.  *God  has 
given  and  God  has  taken,  may  his  holy  name  be  blessed  !'  is 
the  only  exclamation  which  he  will  make ;  and  the  man  who 
was  revelling  in  wealth  begins  to  earn  his  bread  by  some  menial 
occupation,  without  repining  at  his  fate.  He  is  patient  and  per- 
severing beyond  all  description  in  pursuing  the  object  he  has  in 
view.  He  is  steady  in  his  conduct  and  exceedingly  sober,  and 
a  gambler  or  drunkard  is  very  rare  among  the   real  Jews, 

although  those  who  have  relaxed  in  their  RELIGIOUS  OBSER- 
VANCES ARE  FREQUENTLY  DISSOLUTE.  The  Jcw  is  also  vcry  sen- 
sible to  kind  treatment,  and  is  capable  of  a  strong  sense  of 
gratitude  for  benefits  received." 

All  the  happy  effects  of  religion  upon  the  human  mind  are 
here  ascribed  to  the  Jew,  by  an  unwilling,  perhaps  unconscious 
witness — a  strong  religious  hope,  resignation  to  divine  decrees, 
sobriety  and  temperance ; — what  more  is  religion  to  effect  ? — 
Our  salvation?  but,  good  friends!  leave  us  to  settle  this  question 
with  our  own  conscience.  We  do  the  duties  demanded  of  us 
as  citizens  or  subjects ;  we  pay  our  debts ;  are  industrious,  fru- 
gal, temperate,  peace-loving,  careful  of  human  life,  we  support 
generally  our  own  poor,  few  of  our  people  encumber  your  jails, 
great  crimes  are  rarely  committed  by  persons  belonging  to 

doubt  that  a  long  course  of  ill-treatment  had  at  one  time  engendered  a  re- 
ciprocal dislike ;  but  it  is  also  true,  that  a  change  in  the  treatment  towards 
us  has  also  greatly  diminished,  and  in  some  places  entirely  obliterated  the 
dislike  of  the  Jew  to  his  Christian  fellow-citizen. 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

Israel,  we  are  good  members  of  the  commonweal,  improving 
in  general  knowledge  wherever  not  interfered  with  or  checked 
by  the  state,  and  are  as  free  from  prejudice,  bigotry  and  reli- 
gious hatred  as  any  of  your  own  numerous  sects,  to  say  no 
more ;  and  still  our  existence  troubles  you — your  sleep  is  dis- 
turbed by  the  presence  of  the  Jew  on  earth — your  religious 
horror  is  excited  because  the  name  of  Israel  is  not  extinct;  and 
you  must  needs  raise  funds,  and  send  out  missionaries  in  every 
direction  to  remove  the  detested  name,  to  blot  out  the  remnant 
of  Jacob  from  among  the  families  of  the  earth !  I  ask  you, 
whether  you  yourselves  can  say  that  such  proceeding  is  wise, 
or  in  accordance  with  good  fellowship.  Up  to  this  moment 
we  have  remained  passive  and  unresisting;  I  do  not  mean 
physically,  for  our  weakness  and  smallness  of  numbers  would 
of  themselves  have  always  rendered  such  resistance  unavailing; 
but  I  speak  of  moral  resistance,  a  direct  interference  in  your 
prerogative  as  public  teachers.  Believe  us,  that  our  doctrines 
can  bear  a  public  exhibition,  and  that,  if  we  would,  it  might  be 
easy  to  make  numerous  proselytes  from  your  ranks;  we  might, 
if  we  were  so  disposed,  imitate  the  opponents  of  your  religion 
belonging  to  yourselves,  and  disseminate  tracts  and  other  publi- 
cations unsettling  the  conviction  of  many  who  are  now  strict 
conformists.  But  our  blessed  law  teaches  us  a  different  course: 
"  The  righteous  of  the  nations  of  the  world  have  a  part  in  the 
life  to  come ;"  "  The  law  which  Moses  commanded  unto  us  is 
the  inheritance  of  the  congregation  of  Jacob ;"  hence  we  are 
glad  if  we  see  righteousness  after  the  model  of  the  holy  Scrip- 
tures, no  matter  whether  the  pious  belong  to  our  church  or  to 
any  other  that  lets  us  live  in  peace  ;  hence  it  is  that  we  do  not 
like  to  admit  gentiles  to  our  communion  till  we  are  convinced 
that  they  come  with  a  sincere  conversion,  and  are  not  moved 
to  embrace  a  profession  of  faith  which  has  been  preserved 
with  tears,  with  sorrows,  with  pains,  with  blood,  with  death, 
except  from  a  pure  attachment  to  the  law  of  Heaven.  For  we 
look  upon  ourselves  as  a  body  of  men  chosen  to  preserve  un- 
touched the  revelation  of  the  great  Creator ;  and  sincerity  and 
meekness  are  the  price  of  an  admission  to  become  a  fellow- 
watchman  over  this  precious  treasure.    Not  because  we  are 

B 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

indifferent  about  the  progress  of  improvement,  but  simply  be- 
cause we  do  not  consider  the  world  at  large  bound  by  the  cere- 
monial law,  do  we  abstain  from  employing  public  teachers  to 
proclaim  aloud  our  doctrines  to  non-Israelites,  and  to  attack 
those  principles  of  conduct  and  those  ideas  of  the  Deity  against 
which  we  have  borne  our  silent,  and  not  the  less  emphatic  testi- 
mony for  so  many  centuries. — This  idea  is  also  maintained  by 
Moses  Mendelssohn  in  the  last  work  bearing  on  religion  which 
he  wrote.  I  allude  to  his  celebrated  treatise  called  •'  Jerusa- 
lem, or  a  dissertation  on  Religious  Power  and  Judaism,"  which 
by  the  by  I  had  not  read  when  the  present  series  of- letters  was 
written.  The  following  are  the  words  of  this  great  philoso- 
pher: 

"  And  now  I  am  enabled  to  render  my  hypothesis  of  the 
object  of  the  ceremonial  law  in  the  Jewish  system  of  religion 
more  intelligible. — The  archfathers  of  our  nation,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob  had  remained  faithful  to  the  Eternal,  and  en- 
deavoured to  maintain  within  their  families  and  immediate  de- 
scendants pure  religious  ideas,  removed  from  every  species  of 
idolatry.  And  novi^  were  these  their  descendants  selected  by 
Providence  to  be  a  'priestly  nation;  that  is  to  say,  a  nation 
which  through  its  organization  and  institutions,  through  its 
laws,  actions,  fortunes  and  changes  should  constantly  direct 
the  attention  to  sound,  unadulterated  notions  of  God  and  his 
attributes,  and  should,  so  to  say,  by  its  mere  existence  unceas- 
ingly spread,  proclaim,  preach  and  preserve  the  same  among 
other  nations." — It  is  only  a  silent  teaching  that  is  asked  of  us, 
and  we  may  freely  leave  it  to  others  to  answer,  whether  we 
have  not  effectually  fulfilled  the  object  of  our  mission.  The 
Omniscient  wanted  to  plant  his  law  in  the  hearts  of  men  by 
imperceptible  steps  towards  a  gradual  fulfilment;  He  therefore 
chose  a  nation  of  priests  to  be  always  ready,  and  perpetual  wit- 
nesses of  his  power,  whom  no  force,  no  bribery,  no  persuasion 
should  ever  wholly  cause  to  swerve  from  the  line  of  duty  He 
had  pointed  out  to  them.  The  world  has  beheld  this  constant, 
silent  exhibition  of  a  pure,  unadulterated  faith;  and  though 
mankind  drew  the  sword,  like  the  valiant  warrior  on  the  day 
of  strife,  to  extirpate  these  heroic  witnesses :  it  availed  not  any 


INTRODUCTION.  j  1 

farther  than  for  a  time  diminishing  the  number  of  the  defenders; 
but  the  law  itself,  the  noble  testimony  of  God's  power,  remains 
untouched. 

One  would  judge  that  so  many  fruitless  attempts,  fruitless 
because  failing  of  a  complete  accomplishment  of  so  many 
efforts,  should  have  taught  long  before  this  the  mass  of  our  op- 
ponents, that  they  are  engaged  in  an  enterprize  against  which 
the  voice  of  Heaven  had  been  declared  again  and  again ;  but 
we  have  to  lament,  that  experience  has  not  taught  them  wisdom, 
and  that  failures  have  not  impressed  upon  them  the  necessity  of 
forbearing  to  disturb  the  peace  of  our  inobtrusive  lives.  I  speak 
advisedly,  when  I  use  the  word  inobtrusive ;  for  the  Jews  as  a 
people  ask  for  tranquillity,  and  wish  not  to  interfere  wantonly 
with  their  neighbours'  opinions  or  rights ;  and  whilst  their  con- 
duct jeopards  no  one's  possessions,  their  private  thoughts  on 
speculative  theology  ought  not  as  a  matter  of  right  to  give  the 
least  uneasiness  to  their  fellow-men  who  happen  to  differ  from 
them. — ^We  now  maintain  that  evil  enough  has  been  entailed 
on  us  from  a  long  course  of  malevolence  exhibited  in  many 
varying  shapes  for  many  centuries ;  we  maintain,  that  in  the 
constitutional  and  enlightened  countries  of  Europe  and  America 
human  rights  are  now  better  understood  than  formerly;  we 
maintain,  that  every  man  has,  or  ought  to  have,  the  right  to 
worship  his  Maker  in  a  manner  consonant  with  the  dictates  of 
his  conscience,  saving  only  that  such  manner  cannot  become 
injurious  to  society  at  large,  such  as  atheism  and  anti-social  in- 
stitutions (although  these  too  should  be  combatted  by  reason 
more  than  by  the  force  of  civil  power);  we  maintain  that  whilst 
a  man  does  nothing  to  injure  his  neighbour  in  the  enjoyment  of 
liberty,  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  and  his  lawfully  acquired  pos- 
sessions, he  ought  not  to  be  restrained  from  worshipping  in 
the  manner  just  specified,  or  have  his  rights  abridged  for  so 
doing,  or  to  be  enticed  by  any  means  whatever  to  yield  his 
opinions,  or  to  be  exposed  to  public  scorn  for  maintaining  such 
views  and  following  a  course  of  conduct  based  upon  them 
which  cannot  injure  those  differing  from  him  in  their  worldly 
and  spiritual  possessions.  In  short,  we  claim,  as  children  of  one 
Father,  as  followers  of  his  law,  as  supporters  of  a  highly  social 
system,  to  remain  Jews,  without  the  interference  of  our  Chris- 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

tian  neighbours  and  fellow-citizens;  just  as  we  act  towards 
them.     You  may  say  that  we  preach  toleration  because  we 
are  in  the  minority ;  but  that  we  would  speak  differently  if  we 
were  to  obtain  dominion.     But  we  deny  this  supposition.     You 
cannot  point  out  a  single  period  in  our  history,  where  the  Jews 
acted  unfriendly  to  the  strangers  that  dwelt  among  them ;  the 
only  restriction  the  Mosaic  code  imposed  was  the  non-appoint- 
ment of  a  gentile  as  the  king  of  Israel ;  and  this  prohibition 
even  was  of  no  avail  in  the  second  temple,  since,  with  a  short 
exception,  our  people  w-ere  subject  to  foreign  tutelage  during 
the  whole  of  that  period. — And  even  assume,  for  argument's 
sake,  that  the  Jews  too  had  been,  or  would  become,  persecutors : 
still,  would  it  not  abate  the  justice  of  our  claim  in  the  least ;  we 
offer  a  good  plea,  based  upon  the  excellence  of  our  religious 
institutions,  which  cannot  be  controverted  by  any  supposition 
of  what  might  take  place  in  case  our  nation  were  to  become 
again  independent  and  sovereign.     At  the  present  time  we  are 
at  all  events  powerless  as  a  people ;  we  live  amongst  you,  and 
under  your  control ;  you  have  tried  our    extermination  long 
enough ;  you  have  caused  bitterness  on  your  side  and  heart- 
burning on  ours ;  in  some  parts  of  the  world  you  tolerate  us,  in 
others  you  oppress  us,  and  in  others  again  you  declare  that  we 
are  your  equals  in  political  rights.     Now  we  appeal  to  you,  to 
extend  your  liberality  to  our  opinions  also;  and  to  tolerate  these 
as  you  tolerate  our  bodies ;  let  them  live  or  die  as  they  can  of 
their  own  intrinsic  value,  and  leave  us  their  silent  enjoyment 
till  we  get  tired  of  them,  which  time  will  never  arrive,  as  we 
are  promised  in  the  prophecies  contained  in  Scripture.     And 
you,   as   Christians,   must   acquiesce   in  the  justice  of  these 
remarks,   for   the   founder   of   your  faith    himself   declared : 
"  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets: 
I  am  not  come  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil.     For  verily  I  say  unto 
you,  Till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no 
wise  pass  from  the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled.     Whosover,  there- 
fore, shall  break  one  of  these  least  commandments  and  shall 
teach  men  so,  he  shall  be  called  the  least  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven:   but  whosoever  shall  do  and  teach  them,  the  same 
shall  be  called  great  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  (Matthew  v. 
17-19.)     I  leave  it  to   controversiaHsts  to  settle  the  precise 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

meaning  of  these  words ;  to  me,  however,  they  appear  to  con- 
vey, that  the  author  of  the  sermon  on  the  mount  meant  to  con- 
firm the  observance  of  the  precepts  of  the  law,  and  consequently 
taught  that  salvation  could  be  obtained  by  the  Israelites  through 
these  means  only.  Of  course  the  Jews  of  the  present  day 
ought  not  to  be  disregarded  by  his  followers  for  doing  as  they 
were  taught  by  him,  even  admitting,  for  argument's  sake,  the  au- 
thenticity of  the  history  of  Matthew;  since  the  highest  authority 
among  these  no  less  than  that  of  the  former  makes  the  permanent 
observance  of  the  Mosaic  Law  an  important  duty. 

Mendelssohn  accords  with  this  view  in  his  Jerusalem,  in  the 
following  words  :  "  In  this  is  clearly  applicable.  What  God  has 
bound,  man  cannot  unbind  !  If  one  of  us  apostatizes  to  the 
Christian  religion,  I  still  cannot  understand  how  he  can  thereby 
absolve  his  conscience,  and  believe  himself  to  be  released  from 
the  yoke  of  the  law !  The  founder  of  Christianity  never  de- 
clared that  he  had  come  to  absolve  the  house  of  Jacob  from  the 
law.  Nay,  he  said  the  very  reverse  in  emphatic  words ;  and 
what  is  more,  he  himself  did  the  very  reverse.  He  himself  not 
only  observed  the  law  of  Moses,  but  also  the  ordinances  of  the 
Rabbins,  and  whatever  in  the  actions  and  speeches  ascribed 
to  him  seems  to  contradict  this,  will  appear  to  do  so  only 
at  first  sight,  if  properly  viewed.  Strictly  investigated,  all  he 
said  and  did  does  not  only  coincide  entirely  with  Scripture,  but 
likewise  with  tradition.  If  he  did  come  to  oppose  the  prevail- 
ing hypocrisy  and  pretended  sanctity,  he  would  assuredly  not 
have  furnished  the  first  example  of  pretended  sanctity,  and 
given  authority  by  his  example  to  a  law  which  was  to  be 
repealed  and  abolished.  From  his  whole  conduct,  as  also  from 
the  conduct  of  his  disciples  in  the  first  period,  one  may  derive 
a  strong  sanction  for  the  rabbinical  principle :  '  Whoever  is  not 
born  under  the  law  need  not  bind  himself  by  the  law ;  but  who- 
ever is  born  under  the  law  must  live  according  to  the  law,  and 
die  according  to  the  law  !'  If  his  followers  in  later  times  have 
thought  differently,  and  believed  themselves  authorized  to  ab- 
solve the  Jews  likewise  who  adopted  their  doctrines:  they 
acted  thus  surely  without  his  authority."  These  are  the  con- 
clusive reasonings  of  one  of  the  most  amiable  spirits  that  ever 
animated  the  human  form ;  and  I  see  not  any  objection  which 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

the  most  sincere  Christian  can  oppose  to  them.  Mendelssohn 
however  did  not  admit  the  authenticity  of  the  gospels  any  more 
than  myself;  he  only  takes  the  history  of  the  founder  of  the 
stupendous  system  which  was  built  upon  his  -words  and  actions 
as  he  finds  it,  and  shows  that  even  with  this,  as  a  true  basis  of 
Christianity,  its  followers  are  prohibited  from  persuading  the 
Jew  proper  to  throw  off  the  law,  which  he  is  bound  to  execute 
as  the  natural  heir  of  the  Una  of  Jacob.  Our  own  law  is  an- 
swer enough  for  ourselves ;  but  for  the  Christian  also  we  have 
an  answer  from  the  great  ground-text  of  his  belief. 

We  will  not  advert  to  the  different  sects  of  Christians,  who 
all  claim  to  be  the  correct  interpreters  of  the  gospels ;  because, 
as  we  do  not  mean  to  leave  the  standard  of  our  law,  it  is  not 
for  us  to  interfere  in  the  domestic  quarrel  of  the  Christian 
church.  As  far  as  we  are  concerned  they  are  all  ahke ;  we 
are  bound  to  serve  the  state,  no  matter  whether  the  rulers  be 
Romanists  or  Protestants,  whether  Episcopists  or  Independents; 
and  individuals  claim  our  brotherly  assistance  and  kindness,  no 
matter  what  shades  of  opinion  may  separate  them.  But  it  may 
not  be  considered  presumptuous  for  a  Jew  to  express  his  surprise 
that,  with  the  nearer  approach  that  has  been  made  to  our 
opinions  by  many  Christians,  for  instance,  the  acknowledgment 
of  the  Unity  by  a  great  mass  of  enlightened  and  scriptural  men, 
and  the  literal  interpretation  of  Scripture-promises  by  others  of 
orthodox  trinitarians,  by  which  means  both  have  virtually  con- 
fessed that  their  former  opinions  were  erroneous — the  spirit  of 
tacit  dislike  to  us  should  have  been  kept  alive,  and  that,  amidst 
such  great  triumphs  of  sacred  truths,  for  which  we  have  been 
so  long  contendingj  not  more  kindliness  for  our  faith  should 
have  been  exhibited.  I  know  well  enough,  that  thousands  of 
Christians  wish  us  well,  and  are  anxious  to  give  ample  proof  of 
their  brotherly  feeling ;  recent  events  have  indeed  awakened 
sympathies  which  are  honourable  to  the  persons  who  so  nobly 
spoke  for  and  offered  to  aid  in  the  cause  of  the  recent  sufferers 
in  Damascus  and  Rhodes ;  (are  we  to  hope  that  this  newly  dis- 
played friendship  is  to  be  permanent  ?)  still  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  even  in  this  free  country  there  is  a  great  desire  for  convert- 
ing the  Jews,  and  much  joy  is  exhibited  whenever  a  stray  wan- 
derer quits  our  encampment  for  the  society  of  the  multitude ; 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

in  Germany,  chiefly  Prussia,  large  rewards  are  ofTered  for 
apostates,  the  doors  of  honour  and  office  are  thrown  wide  open 
to  them,  whilst  the  professing  Jew  is  debarred  from  every  public 
employment ; — (will  the  new  king  of  North  Germany  alter 
this  ?)  and  in  England  no  Jew  can  hold  office,  simply  because 
he  cannot  take  the  test- oath  as  a  man  of  honour,  whilst  perjury 
would  make  him  an  equal  with  the  Christian.  We  therefore 
demand,  what  good  end  do  you  purpose  to  attain  by  these  en- 
deavours? You  may  convert,  we  will  admit,  large  masses,  at 
least  we  will  take  your  word  for  the  success  of  your  labours ; 
you  may  succeed  to  render  our  teachers  odious  in  the  eyes  of 
the  ignorant  and  the  voluptuary  ;  and  you  may  perhaps  unsettle 
the  religious  convictions  of  many,  and  because  they  will  not 
investigate,  induce  them  to  embrace  infidelity  in  place  of 
Judaism,  if  they  cannot  convince  themselves  of  the  dogmas  of 
Christianity :  but  when  all  this  has  been  accomplished,  I  must 
confess  that  I  cannot  discover  a  single  advantage  gained  to  the 
cause  of  religion  and  biblical  truths ;  for  we  have  yet  to  learn 
that  a  purchased  apostate  is  a  desirable  acquisition  to  any 
party ;  that  a  sensualist,  who  has  no  fear  of  the  law  before  him, 
and  who  acknowledges  no  authority  of  a  religious  teacher,  can 
be  a  good  citizen ;  or  that  a  man  without  fear  of  divine  retribu- 
tion can  be  of  the  same  public  utility  as  he  who  is  an  humble 
follower  of  the  law  of  Moses. — We  wish  not  to  interfere  with 
you,  we  wish  not.  Christian  friends !  to  unsettle  your  hopes  and 
convictions;  act  in  the  same  manner  to  us.  The  public  press  is 
open  to  you  in  all  countries,  and  you  can  print  controversial 
works  without  number  if  you  are  inclined  to  do  so ;  if  you  meet 
with  a  Jew  who  is  acquainted  with  the  principles  of  his  religion 
you  can  argue  with  him  ;  but  do  not,  as  honest  men,  interfere 
with  young  children  or  ignorant  persons,  to  draw  the  first 
away  from  the  parental  fireside,  or  throw  the  latter  beyond  the 
protection  of  those  who  might  be  willing  to  serve  them,  both  as 
moral  and  physical  benefactors.  Moreover,  we  ask  in  the 
name  of  humanity,  not  to  let  our  religious  profession  be  an 
obstacle  to  our  advancement ;  forget  that  we  differ  in  spiritual 
things,  and  see  whether  we  cannot  serve  the  state  alike, 
although  we  worship  the  same  great  Being  in  different  man- 
ners.    Where  we  are  equal  by  law  leave  us  undisturbed  in  the 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

enjoyment  of  our  equality  for  which  we  have  paid  the  same 
price,  by  contributing  towards  its  achievement  by  our  blood 
and  our  treasure,  which  you  have  paid,  and  do  not  attach  any 
odium  to  us  which  of  right  does  not  adhere  to  the  name  of 
Israel.  Where  we  are  merely  tolerated  to  worship,  do  not 
wait  till  we  forsake  our  faith  before  you  remove  the  shackles 
of  oppression;  we  are  willing  to  become  useful  to  you  no  less 
than  to  ourselves,  only  leave  us  untrammelled,  and  see  whether 
we  will  not  redeem  nobly  the  pledge  we  have  given.  And 
where  an  imaginary  distinction  constitutes  the  difference,  as  is 
the  case  with  the  English  test-oath,  which  no  honest  man, 
however,  can  take  if  he  wishes  to  remain  a  true  Israelite :  do 
add  one  more  good  act  to  the  many  which  have  been  passed  in 
abrogating  antiquated  prejudices  and  absurd  laws,  and  see 
whether  the  state  will  not  be  the  gainer  by  admitting  to  a 
share  of  its  benefits  many  individuals  of  a  people  famous  for 
their  attachment  to  the  laws  which  protect  them.  We  appeal 
to  our  late  history  for  proof,  whether,  when  the  state  was  in 
danger,  we  furnished  not  a  full  proportion  of  the  defenders  of 
the  commonwealth,  not  in  America  merely,  but  also  in  Europe, 
especially  in  Germany ;  and  many  a  one  has  expired  on  the 
battle-field  in  the  defence  of  his  native  land,  which  nevertheless 
regards  his  surviving  brother  as  an  alien  to  the  rights  of  man. 
We  charge  not  the  governments  of  Europe  with  an  intention  to 
oppress. us  from  any  ill-feeling  towards  ourselves ;  but  certainly 
we  do  accuse  them  (though  there  are  exceptions,  for  instance, 
Holland,  France,  and  Weimar,  and  perhaps  others,)  of  making 
use  of  unfair  means  to  induce  us  to  desert  our  religion,  or  op- 
press us  if  we  maintain  this  religion.  They  may  think  that 
professing  Jews  are  injurious  to  the  state ;  but  we  appeal  to  the 
history  of  the  United  States,  of  Holland,  of  France,  of  British 
America,  for  a  denial  of  this  unfounded  fear.  It  is  not  that  we 
look  for  office,  for  it  is  very  certain  that,  being  an  inconsidera- 
ble minority,  few  honours  will  come  to  our  share ;  but  we  do 
not  like  the  exclusion,  if  we  are  capable  of  discharging  a  public 
trust,  for  no  other  reason  than  because  we  are  Jews,  to  be 
offered  the  very  same  situation  if  we  cease  to  be  Jews.  We 
say  it  is  unreasonable  to  make  this  distinction,  and  besides  this 
we  contend  that  your  own  cause  gains  no  very  valuable  acqui- 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

sitions  by  this  procedure,  if  it  is  not  positively  injured  by  so 
incongruous  a  mixture  as  these  so  called  neophites  bring  in 
among  you.  Let  us  alone,  that  is  your  best  policy,  if  you  will 
not  regard  us  as  equals ;  oppress  us  if  you  think  proper,  but  do 
not  bribe  us  to  forswear  what  otherwise  the  apostates  them- 
selves w^ould  call  truth. 

But  if  you  really  mean  to  do  a  worthy  act,  to  do  something 
which  should  put  Christianity  on  a  high  eminence,  proclaim  "  a 
year  of  freedom"  to  the  oppressed,  strike  off  the  shackles  of 
ancient  prejudice,  and  not  merely  tolerate  the  sons  of  Israel  as 
a  special  act  of  grace,  but  do  more,  and  declare  us  your  equals 
in  political  rights,  as  we  are  so  already  in  the  possession  of 
that  blessed  code  which  is  our  rule  of  life  no  less  than  yours. 
Remember,  that  you  are  yet  our  debtors,  and  that  were  it  not 
for  the  salvation  which  came  through  the  Jews,  you  would,  to 
use  the  emphatic  words  of  one  of  your  own  eloquent  preachers 
on  a  recent  occasion,  to  this  day  fall  down  before  and  worship 
stocks  and  stones.  Long  ages  of  ingratitude  have  been  mea- 
sured out  to  us ;  you  know  perfectly  well  who  were  the  in- 
grates  ;  and  therefore  strive  now  to  repay  a  few  of  the  many 
benefits  and  offer  some  compensation  for  the  many  injuries 
which  are  both  good  cause  for  the  reparation  we  ask  at  your 
hands.  But  speak  not  of  inducing  us  to  give  up  our  law ;  do 
not  send  missionaries  among  us  to  preach  your  doctrines  to 
unwilling  ears.  We  protest  against  such  a  course,  because  it 
is  an  insult  to  common  sense ;  we  protest  against  it,  because 
you  have  no  right  over  our  conscience ;  we  protest  against  it, 
because  our  religion  can  never  become  injurious  to  the  state ; 
we  protest  against  it,  because  we  are  bound  by  the  law  which 
God  made  known  through  Moses,  and  we  cannot  forsake  it 
without  imminent  danger  of  punishment  which  has  always  fol- 
lowed our  transgression ;  we  protest  against  it,  because  the 
class  of  neophites  are  no  better  moral  men  and  useful  citizens 
than  professing  Jews,  and  because  we  think  that  the  state  should 
not  hold  out  rewards  and  promotions  to  stimulate  people's 
actions  either  in  politics  or  religion,  as  such  a  mode  of  policy 
will  make  hypocrites  but  not  sincere  converts,  unless  upon  rare 
occasion,  which  "  a  child  may  write  down ;"  and  lastly  we 
protest  against  this  course,  because  the  very  founder  of  your 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

religion  himself  set  the  example  of  adherence  to  Judaism,  con- 
sequently you  yourselves  must  admit  that  the  Jew  is  bound,  and 
indissolubly  so,  to  the  law  of  his  forefathers. 

I  have  unconsciously  been  led  to  enter  into  a  much  longer 
explanation  than  I  intended,  and  have  incidentally  touched 
upon  points  which  I  meant  to  illustrate  hereafter.  But  I  write 
from  a  deep  sense  of  duty,  and  am  led  therefore  to  say  a  gi'eat 
deal  more  than  I  otherwise  would  do.  I  have  not  been  an  in- 
attentive observer  of  passing  events,  and  I  regret  to  be  com- 
pelled to  say,  that  the  progress  of  enlightenment  has  as  yet  not 
extinguished  the  hatred  felt  towards  the  Jew.  Every  one  there- 
fore who  bears  the  name  is  bound  to  stand  by  what  he  considers 
the  truth,  and  to  defend  it  by  the  aid  of  reason  against  all 
attacks.  And  though  freedom  may  be  ours  in  this  and  other 
lands,  still  the  struggle  is  not  over,  whilst  in  one  single  coun- 
try the  Jew  is  an  alien  to  his  just  rights.  It  is  our  duty  to  an- 
nounce to  our  brethren  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  that  our  hearts 
are  with  them,  and  that  we  are  ready  to  contend  with  them  in 
defence  of  their  cause,  and  that  we  will  furnish  them  with  such 
arguments  as  we  have,  and  render  them  every  aid  in  our  power 
to  cheer  them  onward  in  their  course.  As  was  said  on  another 
occasion,  we  are  citizens  of  different  countries,  and  think  our- 
selves bound  to  serve  and  to  defend  the  land  of  our  birth  or 
adoption ;  but  we  are  also  children  of  Israel,  and  every  one  of 
the  same  nation  is  entitled  to  our  sympathy  and  our  aid  as  a 
brother  and  a  friend,  no  matter  where  his  dwelling-place  may 
be. — This  is  another  reason  why  I  considered  the  republication 
of  these  letters  expedient ;  perhaps  some  one  idea  they  contain 
may  be  found  useful  to  our  friends  abroad,  and  assist  them  to 
defeat  the  arguments  of  their  opponents. 

The  present  publication  is,  I  know,  nothing  but  a  fragment ; 
but  when  I  first  commenced  I  really  had  no  idea  of  the  extent 
to  which  I  should  go ;  and  dwelt  therefore  so  long  upon  pre- 
liminaries, that  I  had  no  right  to  trespass  any  farther  upon  the 
space  of  the  Editor  of  the  Gazette  than  he  had  kindly  given 
me  already ;  hence  the  somewhat  abrupt  termination,  without 
quoting  and  commenting  upon  the  articles  which  called  me  out, 
as  would  have  been  done,  but  for  the  cause  mentioned.  Still 
I  hardly  regret  it,  because  I  had  fulfilled  my  chief  object,  the 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

k 

moment  1  had  called  public  attention  to  the  fact  of  our  cogni- 
zance of  the  revived  plan  of  proselyte-making,  and  of  our  being 
prepared  to  meet  it  with  sound  argument  if  such  should  become 
necessary.  Many  details  were  not  necessary,  since  several 
excellent  works  on  the  controverted  subject  are  generally 
accessible  ;  besides  which  a  public  miscellaneous  newspaper  is 
not  a  fit  vehicle  for  such  a  discussion.  Nevertheless  I  think  that 
the  labour  bestowed  was  not  entirely  thrown  away,  and  I  crave 
for  these  letters  in  their  present  form  the  favour  they  received 
when  in  detached  numbers,  although  their  defects  will  now  be 
more  apparent.  They  are  fragmental  still,  and  will  probably 
always  remain  so,  unless  some  future  occasion  may  induce  me 
to  enlarge  and  improve  them.  Of  one  thing  I  assure  my  asso- 
ciates in  religion,  that  such  as  I  am,  I  shall  be  ever  ready  to 
enter  upon  a  defence  of  our  people  and  faith,  and  that  nothing 
will  give  me  greater  satisfaction  than  to  be  assured  that  I  have 
received  the  approbation  of  the  judicious  of  our  own  and  the 
liberal  of  any  other  persuasion.  No  doubt  numerous  faults  will 
always  be  detected  in  my  performances,  which  hitherto  have 
generally  been  the  products  of  feeling  and  impulse ;  but  this 
much  I  will  say  for  myself,  that  I  never  made  use  of  falsehood 
or  misrepresentation,  as  far  as  is  known  to  myself,  to  advocate 
my  cause,  or  to  set  in  an  unfavourable  light  the  side  of  our 
opponents.  I  therefore  hope,  that  the  indulgence  hitherto  ex- 
tended to  me  may  also  be  bestowed  upon  the  present  trifle,  and 
that  it  may  not  be  considered  unworthy  of  the  calm  considera- 
tion of  the  friend  of  truth,  and  civil  and  religious  liberty,  which 
I  earnestly  hope  may  in  process  of  time  become  universal  all 
over  the  world. 

ISAAC  LEESER. 

Kislev  13th,  5601. 


20 


EXTRACTS 

From  an  article  ift  the  London  Quarterly  Review,  No.  125,  for 
January  1839,  on  the  "  State  and  Prospects  of  the  Jews.''^ 

(The  matter  in  large  type  consists  of  remarks  by  I.  L.) 

Our  lot  is  cast  in  very  wonderful  times.  We  have  reached,  as, it 
were,  Mount  Pisgah  in  our  march ;  and  we  may  discern  from  its  summit 
the  dim,  though  certain  outlines  of  coming  events.  The  tide  of 
action  seems  to  be  rolling  back  from  the  west  to  the  east ;  a  spirit 
akin  to  that  of  Moses,  when  he  beheld  the  Land  of  Promise  in  faith 
and  joy,  is  rising  up  among  the  nations  ; — whatever  concerns  the 
Holy  Land  is  heard  and  read  with  lively  interest ;  its  scenery,  its 
antiquities,  its  past  history  and  future  glories  engage  alike  the  traveller 
and  the  divine — hundreds  of  strangers  now  tread  the  sacred  soil  for 
one  that  visited  it  in  former  days ;  Jerusalem  is  once  more  a  centre  of 
attraction ;  the  curious  and  the  devout  flock  annually  thither  from  all 
parts  of  America  and  Europe,  accomplishing  in  their  laudable  pursuit 
the  promise  of  God  to  the  beloved  City ;  "  whereas  thou  hast  been  for- 
saken and  hated  so  that  no  man  went  through  thee,  I  will  make  thee 
an  eternal  excellency,  the  joy  of  many  generations."* 

It  would  indeed  be  surprising  if  the  wide  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  all  classes  of  the  civilized  world  did  not  create  a  wider  diffusion 
of  interest  for  the  history  and  localities  of  Palestine.  All  that  can 
delight  the  eye,  and  feed  the  imagination  is  lavished  over  its  surface; 
the  lovers  of  scenery  can  find  there  every  form  and  variety  of  land- 
scape ;  the  snowy  heights  of  Lebanon  with  its  cedars,  the  valley  of 
Jordan,  the  mountains  of  Carmel,  Tabor,  and  Hermon,  and  the 
waters  of  Galilee,  are  as  beautiful  as  in  the  days  when  David  sang 
their  praise,  and  far  more  interesting  by  the  accumulation  of  reminis- 
cences. The  land,  unbroken  by  the  toils  of  the  husbandman,  yet 
"  enjoys  her  sabbaths ;"  but  Eshcol,  Bashan,  Sharon,  and  Gilead  are 
still  there,  and  await  but  the  appointed  hour  (so  we  may  gather  from 
every  narrative)  to  sustain  their  millions;  to  flow,  as  of  old,  with  milk 
and  honey ;  to  become  once  more  "  a  land  of  brooks  of  waters,  of 

*  Isaiah  Ix.  15. 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  21 

fountains  and  depths  that  spring  out  of  the  valleys  and  hills ;  a  land 
of  wheat  and  barley,  and  vines,  and  fig-trees,  and  pomegranates,  and 
of  oil-olive  ;"*  and  to  resume  their  ancient  and  rightful  titles,  "  the 
garden  of  the  Lord,"  and  "  the  glory  of  all  lands."  What  number- 
less recollections  are  crowded  upon  every  footstep  of  the  sacred  soil ' 
Since  the  battle  of  the  five  king's  against  four,  recorded  in  the  14th 
chapter  of  Genesis,  nearly  two  thousand  years  before  the  time  of  our 
Saviour,  until  the  wars  of  Napoleon,  eighteen  hundred  years  after  it, 
this  narrow  but  wonderful  region  has  never  ceased  to  be  the  stage  of 
remarkable  events.  If,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  we  omit  the  enumera- 
tion of  spots  signalised  by  the  exploits  of  the  children  of  Israel,  to 
which,  however,  a  traveller  may  be  guided  by  Holy  Writ  with  all  the 
minuteness  and  accuracy  of  a  road-book,  we  shall  yet  be  engaged  by 
the  scenes  of  many  brilliant  and  romantic  achievements  of  the  an- 
cient and  modern  world : — Take  the  plain  of  Esdraelon  alone,  the 
ancient  valley  of  Jezreel,  a  scanty  spot  of  twenty-five  miles  long,  and 
varying  from  six  to  fourteen  in  breadth  :  yet  more  recollections  are 
called  up  here  than  suffice  for  the  annals  of  many  nations.  Here  by 
the  banks  of  "  that  ancient  river,  the  river  Kishon,"  "  the  stars  in 
their  courses  fought  against  Sisera,"  the  object  of  the  immortal  song 
of  Deborah  and  Barak :  and  here  too  is  Megiddo,  signalised  by  the 
death  of  the  "  good  Josiah."  Each  year,  in  a  long  succession  of 
time,  brought  fresh  events;  the  armies  of  Antiochus  and  of  Rome, 
Egyptians,  Persians,  Turks,  and  Arabs,  the  fury  of  the  Saracens,  and 
the  mistaken  piety  of  the  crusaders,  have  found,  in  their  turn,  the 
land  "  as  the  garden  of  Eden  before  them,  and  have  left  it  a  desolate 
wilderness."  Nor  did  it  escape  the  ferocious  gripe  of  the  revolu- 
tionary war ;  the  arch-destroyer  of  mankind  sent  his  armies  thither 
under  the  command  of  General  Kleber,  and  in  1799  gave  the  last 

memorial  of  blood  to  these  devoted  plains. 

******* 

We  have  alluded,  in  the  commencement  of  this  article,  to  the 
growing  interest  manifested  in  behalf  of  the  Holy  Land.  This  inte- 
rest is  not  confined  to  the  Christians — it  is  shared  and  avowed  by 
the  whole  body  of  the  Jews,  who  no  longer  conceal  their  hope  and 
their  belief  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant,  when  "  the  Lord  shall  set 
his  hand  again  the  second  time  to  recover  the  remnant  of  his  people 
which  shall  be  left,  from  Assyria,  and  from  Egypt,  and  from  Pathros, 
and  from  Gush,  and  from  Elam,  and  from  Shinar,  and  from  Hamath, 

•Deut.  viii.  7. 
c 


22  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

and  from  the  islands  of  the  sea ;  and  shall  set  up  an  ensign  for  the 
nations,  and  shall  assemble  the  outcasts  of  Israel,  and  shall  gather 
together  the  dispersed  of  Judah  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth." — 
Isaiah  xi.  11. 

Doubtless,  this  is  no  new  sentiment  among  the  children  of  the 
dispersion.  The  novelty  of  the  present  day  does  not  lie  in  the  indul- 
gence of  such  a  hope  by  that  most  renerable  people — but  in  their  fear- 
less confession  of  the  hope ;  and  in  the  approximation  of  spirit 
between  Christians  and  Hebrews,  to  entertain  the  same  belief  of  the 
future  glories  of  Israel,  to  offer  up  the  same  prayer,  and  look  forward 
to  the  same  consummation.  In  most  former  periods  a  developement 
of  religious  feeling  has  been  followed  by  a  persecution  of  the  ancient 
people  of  God ;  from  the  days  of  Constantine  to  Leo  XII.,*  the 
disciples  of  Christ  have  been  stimulated  to  the  oppression  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel ;  and  Heaven  alone  can  know  what  myriads  of  that 
suffering  race  fell  beneath  the  piety  of  the  crusaders,  as  they  marched 
to  recover  the  sepulchre  of  their  Saviour  from  the  hands  of  the  infi- 
dels. But  a  mighty  change  has  come  over  the  hearts  of  the  Gentiles ; 
they  seek  now  the  temporal  and  eternal  peace  of  the  Hebrew  people ; 
societies  are  established  in  England  and  Germany  to  diffuse  among 
them  the  light  of  the  Gospel ;  and  the  increasing  accessions  to  the 
parent  Institution  in  London  attest  the  public  estimation  of  its  princi- 
ples and  services. 

The  Reviewer  seenns  to  think  it  a  matter  of  benefit  to  the 
Israelites  that  efforts  are  made  and  successfully  carried  out  for 
their  conversion.  This  is  surely  a  singular  act  of  grace  !  we 
resisted  all  amalgamation,  braved  death  rather  than  relinquish 
our  holy  religion !  and  now  we  are  to  feel  grateful  for  the 
mildness  with  which  our  extermination  is  to  be  effected !  as 
though  it  could  make  a  material  difference  to  one  condemned 
to  die  whether  his  head  be  cut  off  at  one  blow,  or  he  gradually 
expire  by  having  vein  after  vein  opened  till  his  blood  become 
slowly,  but  nevertheless  effectually  exhausted !  One  would 
judge,  that  a  more  rational  way  to  obtain  the  gratitude  of  the 

•  "  By  an  edict  of  Leo  XII,,  they  were  closely  confined,  to  the  number  of  1500 
to  1800,  within  a  certain  quarter  of  the  town,  called  the  Glietto.  This  place  they  were 
not  allowed  to  leave,  even  for  a  single  day,  without  a  special  license ;  even  though 
furnished  with  such  a  license,  they  were  forbidden  to  dwell,  or  even  coDverse  fami- 
liarly with  Christians." — Hirschfeld'a  Slrictures,  p.  64. 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  23 

Jews  would  be,  to  grant  us  equal  rights,  and  to  second  our 
efforts  to  spread  among  our  own  members  a  correct  knowledge 
of  that  blessed  law  for  which  we  have  suffered  so  much,  and 
for  which  even  the  lukewarm  among  us  are  willing  to  suffer 
yet  more,  whenever  gentile  violence  should  be  again  exerted  to 
deprive  us  of  its  possession. — But  are  the  Reviewer  and  his 
party  willing  to  fraternize  with  Jews  as  such,  and  grant  them 
the  rights  of  man,  and  to  sit  in  parliament  without  their  becom- 
ing apostates  ? 

Encouraged  by  those  proofs  of  a  bettered  condition  and  the  sympa- 
thy of  the  Gentiles  who  so  lately  despised  them,  the  children  of  Israel 
have  become  far  more  open  to  Christian  intercourse  and  reciprocal 
inquiry.  Both  from  themselves  and  their  converted  brethren  we  learn 
much  of  their  doings,  much  of  their  hopes  and  fears,  that  a  few  years 
ago  would  have  remained  in  secret.  One  of  them,  who  lately,  in  the 
true  spirit  of  Moses,  went  a  journey  into  Poland,  "  unto  his  brethren, 
and  looked  on  their  burdens,"  (Exod.  ii.  11)  informs  us  that  "  several 
thousand  Jews  of  that  country  and  of  Russia  have  recently  bound 
themselves  by  an  oath,  that,  as  soon  as  the  way  is  open  for  them  to 
go  up  to  Jerusalem,  they  will  immediately  go  thither,  and  there  spend 
their  time  in  fasting  and  praying  unto  the  Lord,  until  he  shall  send 
the  Messiah Although  it  was,"  he  continues,  "com- 
paratively a  short  time  since  I  had  intercourse  with  my  brethren 
according  to  the  flesh,  I  found  a  mighty  change  in  their  minds  and 
feelings  in  regard  to  the  nearness  of  their  deliverance.  Some  as- 
signed one  reason,  and  some  another,  for  the  opinion  they  enter- 
tained ;  but  all  agreed  in  thinking  that  the  time  is  at  hand."  Large 
bodies,  moreover,  have  acted  on  this  impulse  ;  we  state,  on  the  autho- 
rity of  another  gentleman,  himself  a  Jewish  Christian,  that  the  num- 
ber of  Jews  in  Palestine  has  been  multiplied  twenty-fold ;  that,  though 
within  the  last  forty  years,  scarcely  two  thousand  of  that  people  were 
to  be  found  there,  they  amount  now  to  upwards  of  forty  thousand ; 
and  we  can  confirm  his  statement  from  other  sources,  that  they  are 
increasing  in  multitude  by  large  annual  additions.  A  very  recent 
English  traveller  encountered  many  Jews  on  their  road  to  Jerusalem 
who  invariably  replied  to  his  queries,  that  they  were  going  thither 
"  to  die  in  the  land  of  their  fathers."  For  many  years  past  this  desire 
had  prevailed  among  the  Hebrews ;  old  Sandys  has  recorded  it  in  his 
account  of  Palestine ; — but  it  has  been  reserved  for  the  present  day  to 
see  the  wish  so  amply  gratified.     A  variety  of  motives  stimulates  the 


24  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

desire ;  the  devout  seek  to  be  interred  in  the  soil  that  they  love ;  the 
superstitious,  to  avoid  the  disagreeable  alternative  of  being  rolled 
under  the  earth's  surface  until  they  arrive  in  that  land  on  the  great 
morning  of  the  resurrection.  But,  whatever  be  the  motives  of  a 
people  now  blinded  by  ignorance,  who  does  not  see,  in  the  fact,  a 
dark  similitude  of  the  faith  which  animated  the  death-beds  of  the 
patriarchs ;  of  Jacob  and  of  Joseph  (Gen.  xlix.  29)  who  "  when  he 
died,  made  mention  of  the  departing  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and 
gave  commandment  concerning  his  bones  7"  (Heb.  xi.  22.)  In  all 
parts  of  the  earth  this  extraordinary  people,  whose  name  and  suffer- 
ings are  in  every  nation  under  heaven,  think  and  feel  as  one  man  on 
the  great  issue  of  their  restoration — the  utmost  cast  and  the  utmost 
west,  the  north  and  the  south,  both  small  and  large  congregations 
those  who  have  frequent  intercourse  with  their  brethren,  and  those 
who  have  none,  entertain  alike  the  same  hopes  and  fears.  Dr.  Wolff 
(Journal,  1833,)  heard  these  sentiments  from  their  lips  in  the  remotest 
countries  of  Asia ;  and  Buchanan  asserts  that  wherever  he  went 
among  the  Jews  of  India,  he  found  memorials  of  their  expulsion  from 
JudfEa,  and  of  their  belief  of  a  return  thither.  *  *  * 

What  a  marvellous  thing,  that  this  despised  and  degraded  people, 
in  their  suffering  and  baseness,  should  yet  be  minutely  observant  of 
the  royal  supplication  which  fell  from  the  lips  of  Solomon  in  the 
palmy  days  of  Jerusalem  ! — 

"  If  thy  people  bethink  themselves  in  the  land  whither  they  are 
carried  captive,  and  turn  and  pray  unto  Thee  in  the  land  of  their  cap- 
tivity, saying,  we  have  sinned,  we  have  done  amiss,  we  have  dealt 

wickedly and  pray  toward  the  land  which  Thou 

gavest  unto  their  fathers,  and  toward  the  city  which  Thou  hast 
chosen,  and  toward  the  house  which  I  have  built  for  Thy  name;  then 
hear  Thou  from  the  heavens,  even  from  Thy  dwelling-place,  their 
prayer  and  supplication,  and  maintain  their  cause,  and  forgive  thy 
people  which  have  sinned  against  Thee."    (2d  Chron.  vi.  37,  et  seg.) 

Though  they  have  seen  the  Temple  twice,  and  the  City  six  times 
destroyed,  their  confidence  is  not  abated,  nor  their  faith  gone :  for 
1800  years  the  belief  has  sustained  them,  without  a  king,  a  prophet, 
or  a  priest,  through  insult,  poverty,  torture,  and  death :  and  now  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  in  the  midst  of  «<  the  march  of  intellect," — 
what  is  better,  in  the  far  greater  diffusion  of  the  written  word  of  God 
both  among  Jews  and  Christians,  we  hear  from  all  an  harmonious 
assent  to  the  prayer  that  concludes  every  Hebrew  festival,  "  The  year 
that  approaches,  Oh  bring  us  to  Jerusalem !"    This  belief  has  not 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  25 

been  begotten  and  sustained  by  rabbinical  bigotry;  for  although  a 
fraction  of  the  reformed  Jews  have  excluded  from  their  liturgy  every 
jjetition  for  restoration,  and  even  for  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  yet 
it  prevails  more  strongly,  if  possible,  among  the  converts  to  Chris- 
tianity. We  have  now  before  us  a  letter  from  a  Hebrew  proselyte, 
dated  but  a  few  weeks  ago  at  Jerusalem,  which  the  writer  was  visiting 
for  the  first  time;  his  heart  overflows  with  patriotism,  and  the  remem- 
brance of  his  ancestry ;  he  beheld  the  land  of  his  fathers,  to  be  here- 
after his  ;  "  theirs  not  by  unholy  war,  nor  by  stratagem  or  treachery, 
but  as  the  gift  of  Him  who  is  yet  to  be  the  glory  of  his  people 
Israel." 

The  Reviewer  has  certainly  made  a  great  discovery !  So, 
the  Jews  expect  to  be  restored  to  Palestine  !  and  more  than  all, 
Jewish  converts  have  told  him  so,  and  that  they  look  now  for- 
ward to  a  speedy  coming  of  the  Messiah !  But  he  ought  to 
have  known  that  this  hope  was  always  entertained,  and  that 
we  daily  have  looked  for  this  glorious  period  ever  since  the 
destruction  of  the  temple,  and  that  we  believe  it  is  our  sins  that 
retard  our  redemption,  and  that  a  general  repentance  would 
speedily  terminate  our  bondage  and  dispersion.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  not  true  that  we  fix  on  any  particular  time  as  the 
period  of  the  coming  of  the  redeemer ;  for  we  believe  that  the 
time  of  the  end  is  concealed  and  known  to  God  alone.  If  the 
reformed  Jews,  so  called,  reject  the  doctrine  of  the  Messiah,  it 
is  evident  that  the  rabbinical  portion  of  our  people  is  more 
scriptural,  and  better  acquainted  with  the  interpretation  of  the 
text,  than  those  who  endeavour  to  copy  the  customs  and  man- 
ners of  the  gentiles ;  for  there  is  nothing  plainer,  than  that  the 
Bible  speaks  of  a  future  state  of  glory  for  Israel,  a  forgiveness 
of  sins,  a  spread  of  a  knowledge  of  the  law,  and  a  prevalence 
of  peace,  freedom,  and  security  at  the  coming  of  the  son  of 
David.  If  now  Christians  admit  this  doctrine  to  be  true,  (and 
really  I  see  not  how  they  can  dispute  it,)  then  they  certainly  are 
doing  very  wrong  on  the  one  hand  to  exclude  and  oppress  a 
people  whose  cause  God  has  sworn  to  avenge;  and  on  the 
other  to  endeavour  to  banish  them  from  existence  by  converting 
them  to  the  gospel  dispensation,  which,  if  accomplished,  would 
render  their  restoration  to  Palestine  a  moral  impossibility. — The 
remark  about  the  better  opinion  the  Jews  now  have  of  Chris- 


26  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS, 

tians  is  certainly  erroneous,  as  regards  the  implied  cause  of  this 
happier  state  of  society.  It  is  not  because  Christianity  is  more 
mildly  preached  than  by  fire  and  sword,  as  formerly;  but  because 
Christians  have  ceased  in  a  great  degree  to  persecute  us,  and 
have  learned  that  we  have  feelings,  and  sentiments,  and  passions, 
and  virtues,  and  weaknesses,  and  endowments,  just  as  other 
men  have.  Now  let  those  who  exclude  us  from  equal  rights 
follow  the  course  of  America,  and  Holland,  and  France,  and 
declare  us  equals  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  and  refrain  from  inter- 
meddling with  our  religious  opinions ;  and  the  result  would  be 
that  gradually  the  remains  of  ancient  prejudice  would  be  alto- 
gether banished  from  our  hearts,  and  we  would  then  indeed 
T-egard  the  Christian  as  a  brother,  in  addition  to  the  duty  now 
imposed  on  us  by  our  law,  to  serve  the  slate  that  protects  us,  and 
pray  for  the  welfare  of  the  city  whither  we  have  been  banished. 
In  short,  it  is  not  we  who  have  commenced  the  state  of 
estrangement  unfortunately  existing  between  the  followers  of 
the  Bible ;  but  they  who  subsequent  to  us  forsook  paganism  for 
the  light  of  our  law,  and  could  not  brook,  that  we  should 
refuse  to  adopt  that  mode  of  interpreting  the  Scriptures  which 
we  honestly  believed  had  no  foundation  in  truth. 

The  Reviewer  speaks  about  the  marvellous  fact,  "  that  this 
despised  and  degi'aded  people  in  their  suffering  and  baseness 
should  yet  be  minutely  observant  of  the  royal  supplication 
which  fell  from  the  lips  of  Solomon  in  the  palmy  days  of 
Jerusalem."  This  phraseology  is  certainly  ill-chosen,  and  not 
calculated  to  soften  the  prejudices  which,  as  he  alleges,  we 
feel  towards  Christians.  Had  he  spoken  of  "  an  oppressed  and 
injured  people  holding  fast  to  the  word  of  God  in  all  their 
unmerited  sufferings  and  tribulations  which  they  underwent 
through  the  hatred  and  malevolence  of  men  like  the  Reviewer 
who,  speaking  of  charity  and  benevolence,  belied  their  own 
words  by  their  actions,"  he  would  have  spoken  something  like 
acknowledged  truth.  But  the  Jews  are  neither  a  degraded 
people,  nor  is  there  any  thing  like  baseness  attached  to  their 
moral  character ;  for  they  are  as  a  body  not  more  addicted  to 
crime,  to  say  the  least,  than  any  other  class  of  men.  That  we 
hold  fast  to  the  hopes  we  had  in  the  palmy  days  of  Jerusalem 
is  no  more  marvellous  than  our  own  existence ;  we  have  been 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  SffL 

preserved  despite  of  the  machinations  of  our  opponents ;.  and 
shall  we,  can  we  doubt  of  the  ultimate  fulfilment  of  scriptural 
promises,  when  we  see  them  daily  accomplished  before  our  own 
eyes,  when  we  are  made  conscious  that  our  preservation  must 
have  been  the  work  of  an  especial  Providence  to  answer  some 
wise,  though  perhaps  as  yet  unknown  purpose  of  the  Creator  ? 

The  reforms,  as  they  are  termed,  of  modern  days,  have  arranged 
the  Hebrews  under  the  two  classes,  according  to  their  own  designation, 
of  old-fashioned  and  new-fashioned  Jews.  The  new-feishioned  are 
the  "  liberals"  of  Judaism,  the  old-fashioned  are  governed  by  the  op- 
posite principle.  These  reforms,  which  have  so  favourably  exhibited 
their  intellectual  powers,  have  proved  fatal  to  their  sentiments  of 
religion :  disregarding  or  denying  the  truths  on  which  even  the 
Talmud  rested  as  a  basis,  they  have  scorned  to  purge  away  its  dross; 
and,  having  broken  from  the  trammels  of  Rabbinism,  strut  about  in 
the  false  freedom  of  rationalism  and  infidelity.  The  leprosy  has  not 
yet  spread  itself  over  a  large  portion  of  the  people ;  the  chief  seat  of 
the  disease  lies,  of  course,  in  Germany;  but  many  individuals  have 
caught  the  contagion  in  Lemberg,  Brody,  Warsaw,  and  other  towns 
of  Poland.  In  Germany  they  are  engaged  in  the  formation  of  a  lite- 
rature of  their  own,  and  wield  a  portion  of  the  daily  and  periodical 
press;  new  modes  of  worship  are  introduced;  and  the  national  expec- 
tation of  a  Messiah,  being  frittered  away  in  figurative  applications,  is 
debased,  and  yet  satisfied,  by  their  share  in  the  revolutionary  changes 
in  the  European  states.  In  France,  a  kindred  sentiment  prevails ; 
they  desire  even  to  abandon  the  name  of  Jews,  and  assume  the  appel- 
lation of  Frenchmen- Israelites,  or  "  adherents  of  the  Mosaical  reli- 
gion :"  having  been  emancipated,  in  the  change  of  policy  that  followed 
the  revolution  in  that  country,  from  many  burdensome  and  injurious 
restrictions,  they  hail  in  this  ameliorated  condition  the  advent  of  the 
Messiah.  These  principles  are  asserted  in  a  journal  entitled  "  The 
Regeneration,  destined  to  the  improvement,  moral  and  religious,  of 
the  Israelitish  People,"  and  conducted  by  some  of  the  most  able  and 
learned  Jews  of  Paris,  Brussels,  and  Frankfort. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  reformers  even  in  France  wish  to 
drop  the  name  of  Jews  from  any  motive  of  amalgamation  with 
Christians,  as  is  more  than  hinted  above.  I  am  no  reformer  of 
the  kind  alluded  to  by  the  Reviewer;  but  still  I  will  do  those 
of  my  own  people  who  differ  from  me  the  justice  to  say,  that 


28  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

in  wishing  to  be  called  Israelites  instead  of  Jews  the  reason  is, 
because  first,  this  word  properly  designates  only  the  tribe  of 
Judah,  and  consequently  not  the  whole  people  of  Israel,  any 
more  than  a  Londoner  would  stand  for  a  native  of  any  other 
part  of  England.  Secondly,  the  name  of  Jew  has,  in  the  pro- 
cess of  time,  been  used  as  a  word  of  reproach,  although  there 
is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  the  word  which  should  give  it  an 
opprobrious  meaning.  But  cruelty  and  oppression  have  so  long 
been  heaped  upon  our  nation,  that  the  name  they  were  desig- 
nated by  became  at  length  synonymous  with  every  thing  mean, 
avaricious,  and  degraded,  of  which  the  article  under  discussion 
gives  ample  proof.  There  may,  therefore,  be  some  timid  per- 
sons who,  to  get  rid  of  an  unjust  odium,  endeavour  to  drop  an 
odious  name  which  is  not  theirs  of  right,  and  adopt  the  ancient 
national  cognomen,  which  is  connected  with  every  thing  noble 
and  spirit-stirring,  so  that  even  our  persecutors  have  thought  it 
worth  their  adoption,  to  style  themselves,  though  falsely,  by  the 
appellation  which  God  bestowed  on  Jacob. — For  my  own  part, 
I  agree  with  the  bold  Dr.  Gabriel  Riesser,  the  fearless  defender 
of  our  fellow-believers,  who  says  that  we  ought  to  uphold  the 
name  of  Jew  and  render  it  honourable,  and  do  all  to  make 
those  differing  from  us  acknowledge,  that  they  who  bear  it  do 
well  their  part  as  citizens  and  as  men;  and  that  if  there  is 
prejudice  we  must  strive  to  conquer  it,  and  make  the  world 
forget  that  ever  any  stigma  was  attached  to  a  name  honourable 
alike  through  antiquity  and  the  firm  faith  of  its  possessors. — 
Otherwise  there  can  be  no  objection  to  the  name  of  Frenchmen- 
Israelites  ;  for  the  Jews  owe  strict  allegiance  to  the  state,  and 
consequently  they  are  both  citizens  no  less  than  followers  of  the 
Mosaic  code. 

It  is  only  within  the  last  few  years  that  the  Jews,  as  a  body,  have 
been  known  beyond  the  circle  of  curious  and  abstruse  readers.  Their 
pursuits  and  capacities,  it  was  supposed,  were  limited  to  stock-jobbing, 
money-lending,  and  orange-stalls ;  but  few  believed  them  to  be  a 
people  of  vigorous  intellect,  of  unrivalled  diligence  in  study,  with  a 
long  list  of  ancient  and  modern  writers,  whose  works — though  often- 
times mixed  with  matter,  much  of  which  is  useless,  and  much  perni- 
cious, and  calculated  far  more  to  sharpen  than  to  enrich  the  under- 
standing— bespeak   most   singular   perseverance   and   ability.     The 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  2S 

emancipation  of  genius,  which  began  under  Moses  Mendelssohn,  about 
the  year  1754,  brought  them  unlooked-for  fame  on  the  stage  of  pro- 
fane literature ; — the  German,  which  had  hitherto  been  regarded  as  an 
unholy  language,  became  the  favourite  study  of  the  liberalized  He- 
brews ;  thence  they  passed  to  the  pursuit  of  the  various  sciences,  and 
of  every  language,  whether  living  or  dead ;  their  commentators  and 
critics,  philosophers  and  historians,  condescended  to  a  race  with  the 
secular  Gentiles,  and  gave,  in  their  success,  an  earnest  of  the  fruit 
that  their  native  powers  could  reap  from  a  wider  field  of  mental  exer- 
tion. But  the  new  lights,  which  shone  so  brightly  on  the  chiefs  of 
the  secession,  have  done  but  little  to  illuminate  the  body  of  their  fol- 
lowers ;  popular  education,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  is  still 
confined  to  the  Rabbinical  Jews,  who  constitute  the  vast  majority  of 
the  nation.  This  class  of  the  Rabbinists,  notwithstanding  the  exclu- 
siveness  of  their  studies,  must  be  considered  as  an  educated  people, 
perhaps  more  so  than  any  other  upon  earth ;  they  can,  almost  uni- 
versally, read  the  sacred  language,  and  partially  understand  it ;  the 
zeal  of  individuals,  even  the  poorest,  prompts  them  to  undertake  the 
office  of  teachers  ;  and  so  content  are  they  with  small  remuneration, 
that  nearly  a  dozen  Melammedim  might  be  maintained  by  the  salary 
required  for  one  English  schoolmaster.  Parents  and  relations  will 
endure  the  greatest  privations  to  save  a  sufficient  sum  for  the  educa- 
tion of  their  children ;  and  oftentimes,  where  the  income  of  a  single 
family  is  inadequate,  five  or  six  will  make  a  common  purse  to  pro- 
vide the  salary  of  a  tutor.  The  evil  is,  that  an  excellent  system  and 
an  admirable  zeal  are  neutralized  and  perverted  by  Rabbinism  and 
superstition.  "  If  asked  to  give,"  says  Dr.  M'Caul,  "  a  concise,  yet 
adequate,  idea  of  this  system,  I  should  say  it  is  Jewish  popery ;  just 
as  popery  may  be  defined  to  be  Gentile  Rabbinism."  Talmudical 
learning,  and  the  power  of  the  Rabbis,  the  depositories  of  it,  are  the 
ultimate  object  of  Jewish  discipline  ;  to  increase  the  one,  and  dignify 
the  other,  their  writers  have  spared  neither  legend  nor  falsehood,  in 
which  blasphemy  and  absurdity  strive  for  the  pre-eminence :  mean- 
while, the  doctrine  inculcated  is  bitter  in  its  precepts,  unscriptural  in 
its  views,  and  hostile  to  mankind  ;  and,  though  amongst  themselves 
they  both  teach  and  practise  many  social  virtues,  their  state  must  be 
considered  as  exhibiting  an  awful  picture  of  moral  and  religious 
destitution. 

It  is  no  doubt  true  that  many  of  our  people,  when  they  first 
tasted  the  fountain  of  secular  sciences,  closed  to  them  for  so 


30  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

many  ages,  did  exhibit  themselves  very  much  like  intoxicated 
with  the  new  mental  drink,  and  they  did  foolishly  forsake 
the  ancient  path  of  religion,  which  had  so  long  been  trodden  in 
simplicity  by  many  ages  of  faithful  followers  of  the  law.  But 
it  is  not  true  that  this  new  light  of  re-opened  sciences  has  not 
illuminated  the  general  mass  of  Rabbinical  Jews.  Mighty 
efforts  have  been  made  to  diffuse  general  education  in  Germany, 
Holland,  and  Poland,  especially  in  the  former  country;  and  in 
every  direction  schools  have  been  established  to  scatter  a  colle- 
giate course  of  instruction  among  the  youths  of  our  people,  and 
this  not  rarely  in  institutions  under  Jewish  control  entirely,  and 
more  than  all,  under  Rabbinical  superintendence.  That  much 
remains  to  be  done  is  willingly  admitted,  nor  is  it  to  be  denied, 
that  indifference  to  religion  has  taken  a  wide  range ;  but  let  us 
ask,  is  education  among  Christians  more  general  than  among 
us?  or  is  indifference  to  religion  unknown  among  them  1  Per- 
haps it  may  be  said,  that  there  are,  in  proportion  to  numbers, 
more  conformists  among  Christians  than  among  us ;  without 
admitting  or  denying  such  an  assertion,  we  may  however 
maintain  that,  if  the  same  degree  of  patronage  were  to  belong 
to  Jews  as  now  does  to  non-Israelites,  our  members  would  also 
be  stricter  adherents.  It  is  almost  to  be  wondered,  unless  a 
special  miracle  is  presupposed,  that  amidst  the  general  degene- 
racy which  followed  upon  the  French  revolution,  our  system 
has  stood  so  admirably  as  it  has  done.  No  doubt  however,  can 
be  entertained,  that  when  the  minds  of  men  become  more  set- 
tled down,  after  the  revolutionary  feeling  which  now  agitates 
the  world  has  subsided,  our  religion  will  be  also  more  glorified 
by  a  faithful  obedience  than  it  is  now.  Perhaps  some  modifi- 
cation from  the  practice  in  non-essentials,  prevalent  in  former 
countries,  may  result  in  the  meantime ;  but  the  building  itself 
will  not  be  destroyed,  despite  of  traitorous  reformers  among 
ourselves,  and  inimical  sympathizers  among  gentiles. — The 
remark  that,  "  though  amongst  ourselves  we  both  teach  and 
practise  many  social  virtues,  our  state  must  be  considered  as 
exhibiting  an  awful  picture  of  moral  and  religious  destitution," 
is  too  puerile  to  deserve  contradiction,  and  is  pretty  conclusive 
evidence  that  the  writer  of  the  article  in  question  can  derive  his 
information  from  the  enemies  of  Jews  solely,  or  his  acquaint- 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  3X 

ance  must  be  with  those  only  of  our  people  who  are  degraded 
by  crime  and  ignorance.  Has  he  ever  seen  the  works  of 
Yarchi,  Maimonides,  Nachmanides,  Mendelssohn,  Luntschetz, 
Kimchi,  Weseli,  and  a  host  of  others,  ancient  and  modern? 
Surely  these  men  were  not  all  in  an  awful  moral  blindness! 

That  the  Jews  should  be  thus  degraded  and  despised  is  a  part  of 
Iheir  chastisement,  and  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy ;  but,  low  and  ab- 
horred as  they  still  are,  we  now  hail  for  them  the  dawn  of  a  better 
day,  a  day  of  regeneration  and  deliverance,  which,  raising  them  aHke 
from  neology  and  Rabbinism,  shall  set  them  at  large  in  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  Gospel.  This  desirable  consummation,  though  still 
remote,  has  approached  us  more  rapidly  within  the  last  few  years. 
The  Societies  at  Basle,  Frankfort-on-the-Maine,  Berlin,  Posen,  and 
Breslau,  for  promoting  Christianity  among  the  Jews,  have  been  emi- 
nently prosperous ;  but  the  London  Society,  the  first  in  date,  is  like- 
wise the  first  in  magnitude  and  success.  This  admirable  association, 
long  buffeted  by  the  gales  of  adverse  fortune,  seems  now  fairly  har- 
boured in  public  opinion :  "the  entire  contributions,"  says  their  Report 
of  March,  1838,  "received  during  the  past  year,  have  amounted  to 
the  sum  of  19,054^.  8s.  8d.,  being  an  increase  of  4,523/.  175.  9d. 
upon  the  receipts  of  the  preceding  year."  Doubtless  their  future 
exertions  will  be  commensurate  with  their  means,  and  Providence 
will  bless  with  a  larger  harvest  their  increased  expenditure  and  toil. 
But  they  have  been  "  faithful  over  a  few  things,"  and  wrought  great 
effects  in  the  infancy  of  their  fortunes.  They  have  circulated  in  the 
last  year,  besides  tracts,  Pentateuchs,  and  other  works  in  great  num- 
ber, nearly  4000  copies  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Hebrew :  they  have 
twenty-three  stations  in  Europe  and  the  East ;  forty-nine  missionaries 
and  agents,  twenty-four  of  whom  are  Jewish  converts ;  and  ten 
schools,  two  in  London,  and  eight  in  the  duchy  of  Posen.  Although 
the  amount  of  conversions,  relatively  to  the  actual  numbers  of  Israel, 
has  not  been  large,  the  spies  have  brought  back  a  good  account  of 
the  land  ;  the  sample  of  its  fruit  may  rival  the  grapes  of  Eshcol,  and 
stimulate  the  Church  of  England  to  rise  and  take  possession.  In 
almost  every  considerable  town  of  Germany  there  are  to  be  found 
some  baptized  Jews ;  we  learn,  by  official  accounts  from  Silesia,  that 
between  1820  and  1834,  455  persons  were  added  to  the  church;  in 
East  and  West  Prussia  234  in  the  same  time;  and  from  1830  to 
1837,  in  Berlin  alone,  no  less  than  326.  In  Poland,  the  average 
amount  of  baptisms  during  the  last  ten  years  has  been  about  fifteen 


32  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

annually — exclusive  of  the  great  number  baptized  by  the  Romanists, 
to  whom  the  proselytes  are  attracted  by  the  hope  and  assurance  of 
temporal  support  in  the  event  of  their  conversion.  At  the  Hebrew 
Episcopal  Chapel  in  London,  seven  adult  converts,  and  three  children, 
were  baptized  last  year,  making  a  total  thereby  of  246  baptisms  from 
the  commencement,  eighty-five  of  whom  were  adults ;  and  among  the 
converts  in  this  country  may  be  reckoned  four  synagogue-readers,  of 
whom  two  have  lately  received  orders  in  the  Church  of  England ; 
and  six  others,  who  have  taken  part  in  its  apostolical  ministry.  This 
is  no  sudden  or  uncertain  progress ;  it  is  no  reproduction  of  the  same 
Jew,  like  the  annual  proselyte  of  Rome  at  the  feast  of  St.  Peter,  who 
is  kept,  as  the  dog  at  the  Grotto  del  Cane,  to  be  victimized  for  the 
edification  of  the  curious  ;  a  new  spur  has  been  given  to  the  advance 
and  establishment  of  the  faith  among  them,  and  conversions  are 
greatly  on  the  increase.  "  There  is  rarely  an  instance,"  says  our 
experienced  informant,  "  of  a  return  to  Judaism ;  and  though  some 
fall  into  sin,  and  misbehave  themselves,  their  profession  of  Christi- 
anity is  lasting,  and,  I  believe,  sincere."  *  *  * 

In  the  above  paragraph  the  Reviewer  states  clearly  his  satis- 
faction at  the  success  that  has  attended  the  societies  for  coor 
verting  the  Jews,  especially  the  one  established  in  London, 
something  like  thirty  years  ago.  That  at  Berlin,  Posen,  and 
Breslau  in  the  dominions  of  Prussia,  many  outward  conver- 
sions should  have  been  made  is  no  wise  remarkable,  and  it  is 
only  surprising  that  official  accounts  from  Silesia  (Breslau) 
should  give  in  fourteen  years  but  455,  and  in  E.  and  W.  Prus- 
sia in  the  same  time  but  234,  and  in  Berlin,  the  capital,  no  more 
than  326  in  seven  years :  when  it  is  considered  that  such  large 
bounties  are  offered  to  apostates,  as  freedom  of  residence,  though 
foreigners,  (not  otherwise  accorded  to  professing  Jews,)  and 
gifts  in  money,  admission  to  public  offices,  intermarriages  with 
wealthy  Christian  families,  court-favour,  and  Heaven  only 
knows  what  else.  The  late  king  of  Prussia,  be  it  remembered, 
made  it  a  sort  of  merit  to  himself  to  convert  Jews,  and  he  left 
nothing  untried  to  give  effect  to  his  wishes.  Now  view  the 
large  number  of  unscrupulous  persons,  whether  rich  or  poor,  be- 
longing to  every  persuasion  ;  and  can  any  one  express  any  sur- 
prise that  in  fourteen  years  a  thousand  or  thereabouts  should  be 
found  in  a  country  where  so  many  Jews  reside  as  in  Northern 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  33 

Prussia,  to  which  may  be  added,  (at  least  a  fourth  of  the  con- 
verts coming  from  Poland,)  the  crowded  population  of  that 
country,  who  for  so  great  temporal  rewards  would  outwardly 
embrace  a  religion  which  made  them  free,  when  their  own 
would  either  banish  them  from  the  country,  or  class  them  among 
the  oppressed  and  unfavoured  members  of  the  Synagogue  ? 
Surely,  if  conviction  could  produce  these  effects,  so  many 
rewards  would  not  be  held  out  to  apostates  ;  it  is,  as  said  else- 
where, the  power  of  money,  place,  and  pleasure  which  is  to 
effect  what  the  sword  failed  of  accompUshing. — We  sincerely 
deplore  the  baseness  of  these  persons ;  they  were  unworthy  of 
the  name  of  Jew,  slightly  as  they  or  Christians  may  value  it ; 
we  abhor  the  faithlessness  with  which  they  turned  their  backs 
upon  the  law  of  God — but  surprised  we  are  not ;  and  we  ven- 
ture to  say,  that  many  of  them  in  secret  deplore  the  awful  sin 
of  which  they  have  been  guilty,  and  that  the  poorest  Jew  has 
more  serenity  of  mind  when  he  boldly  defends  his  belief  against 
all  opponents,  than  some  of  these  same  church  dignitaries,  when 
preaching  doctrines  of  which  they  hardly  can  have  sufficient 
conviction. 

We  have  here  also  some  curious  statistics  with  regard  to  the 
London  society.  In  the  year  '37  and  '38  the  receipts  were 
nearly  100,000  dollars,  being  22,000  more  than  in  the  preceding 
year.  And  how  many  converts  were  made  on  the  spot  ?  Laugh 
not,  gentle  reader !  seven  adults,  and  three  children !  and  the 
total  amounts  of  baptisms  since  its  commencement,  say  in 
thirty  years,  were  eighty-five  adults  and  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
one  children  !  What  a  disproportion  between  grown  persons  and 
irresponsible  infants  in  law  !  Is  it  possible  that  men  can  be  so  de- 
luded as  to  squander  such  immense  sums  as  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  in  one  year  and  eighty  in  another  to  convert  seven 
men  and  women,  perhaps  vagabonds  and  impostors,  and  to  get 
possession  of  children  to  make  them  different  from  what  their 
parents  were  ?  Such  baptizing  of  children  is  surely  no  conver- 
sion ;  and  will  any  one  enlighten  us  of  the  manner  in  which 
possession  of  these  minors  is  obtained  ?  This  is  not  the  place 
to  relate  some  facts,  as  they  are  reported,  which  have  come  to 
my  knowledge ;  besides,  I  fear  of  making  an  erroneous  state- 
ment.    But  even  admitting  that  all  is  fair  and  lawful :  still  the 

D 


34  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

very  small  success  attending  the  London  society  must  open  the 
eyes  of  the  greatest  bigot,  the  Reviewer  perhaps  excepted,  to 
the  fact,  that  the  money  contributed  is  little  better  than  thrown 
away. 

Some  remarks  are  made  about  the  relation  of  the  Church  of 
England  towards  the  Jews  in  opposition  to  Romanism.  If  we 
may  judge,  the  Catholics  have  been  about  as  successful  as  the 
Protestants,  that  is  to  say,  they  have  both  made  some  converts ; 
but  we  never  yet  heard,  that  the  Jews  as  a  body  felt  any  more 
inclination  to  the  one  sect  than  the  other. — If  an  Israelite  adopts 
the  trinity,  he  can  also  adopt  the  worship  of  saints ;  for  we  be- 
lieve both  to  be  prohibited  alike  by  the  Decalogue. — We  will 
not  dispute,  that  the  converts  are  sincere,  and  that  no  unfortu- 
nate Jew  is  kept  locked  up  at  London  in  the  manner  it  is  done 
at  Rome  ;  but  it  proves  very  little  in  furtherance  of  the  entire 
destruction  of  the  Jewish  people,  when  nineteen  thousand  pounds 
per  annum  convert  seven  adults,  and  print  perhaps  a  few  He- 
brew Bibles,  for  which  a  Judah  D'AlIemand,  a  professing  Jew, 
is  or  was  employed  as  editor,  and  support  a  few  missionaries  in 
the  West  India  Islands  and  the  East,  to  send  an  account  home 
every  year  of  their  want  of  converts  at  their  distant  and  never- 
theless expensive  stations. 

But  even  where  the  parties  have  not  been  fully  brought  to  the  be- 
lief and  profession  of  the  Gospel,  a  mighty  good  has  resulted  from 
the  missionary  exertions.  Ancient  antipathies  are  abated,  and  pre- 
judices subdued ;  the  name  of  Christian  is  less  odious  to  the  ears  of  a 
Jew  ;  and  many  of  the  nation,  adhering  still  to  the  faith  of  their  fore- 
fathers, have  ceased  to  uphold  the  Talmudical  doctrine,  that  the  Gen- 
tiles are  beasts  created  for  the  purpose  of  administering  to  the  neces- 
sities of  Israel.  They  have  conceived  a  respect  for  our  persons,  and 
a  still  greater  for  our  intellects  ;  an  ardent  desire  is  now  manifested 
by  the  Jews  to  hold  conversation  with  the  missionaries ;  along  the 
north  coast  of  Africa,  in  Palestine,  and  in  Poland,  they  have  visited 
them  in  crowds ;  and  many  doubtless,  have  borne  away  with  them 
the  seed  which  a  study  of  the  Scriptures  will  ripen  into  conviction. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  more  friendly  intercourse  between  Jew 
and  Gentile,  we  must  mention  the  kinder  feelings  entertained  by  the 
Hebrews  towards  a  converted  brother.  We  have  heard,  indeed,  from 
the  lips  of  a  proselyte,  that  he  had,  even  within  the  last  four  or  five 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  35 

years,  observed  an  improvement  in  this  respect   among   his   own 
relations.  #**##** 

We  wish  we  could  say  that  this  sentiment  was  universal;  but,  alas, 
we  know  many  lamentable  exceptions.  There  are  Jews  in  all  parts 
of  Europe  who  dare  not  avow  their  Christianity,  so  great  is  the  fear 
of  public  reproach  or  domestic  tyranny.  In  Constantinople,  Tunis, 
and  Turkey  generally,  where  the  Jews  have  a  police,  and  authority 
over  their  own  body,  conversion  is  as  dangerous  as  in  Ireland  itself. 
Whenever  a  Hebrew  is  suspected  of  wavering  in  his  rabbinical  alle- 
giance, he  is  imprisoned  and  bastinadoed ;  and  no  later  than  January 
of  this  year,  a  young  man  in  Tunis,  who  had  discovered  an  inclina- 
tion to  the  hated  faith,  was  assaulted  so  violently  by  his  relations, 
that  "  he  fainted  on  the  spot,"  says  the  missionary,  "  and  lingered  a 
few  days,  when  he  died."  Nevertheless,  conversions  even  there,  as 
in  Ireland,  are  constantly  on  the  increase;  it  being  still  the  good 
pleasure  of  God  that  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  should  be  the  seed  of 
the  Church. 

The  statement  in  the  above  appears  evidently  to  lack  con- 
firmation. It  is  not  likely  that  Jews  living  in  Turkey  should 
display  any  leaning  towards  Christianity,  when  they  have 
neither  associates  of  that  belief  nor  any  knowledge  of  its  tenets. 
It  seems  very  much  as  though  it  were  intended  to  raise  preju- 
dice against  the  Jews  living  in  England,  by  charging  their 
brothers  elsewhere  with  a  persecuting  spirit,  which  is  very 
foreign  to  them. — But  say,  it  is  true,  that  public  reproach  and 
domestic  authority  should  prevent  conversions ;  is  it  then  some- 
thing so  very  extraordinary  ?  would  a  Christian  gentleman,  if 
he  is  sincere  in  his  conviction,  encourage  his  daughter  if  she 
were  to  show  a  desire  to  embrace  Judaism  ?  It  is  more  than 
probable,  for  something  like  it  has  happened,  that  he  would 
deprive  her  of  any  share  in  his  property  ;  and  if  he  truly  thinks 
that  she  is  doing  wrong,  we  can  hardly  blame  him  for  exer- 
cising his  lawful  authority.  Now  grant,  that  it  is  true  that 
some  of  our  people  in  Turkey  should  have  displayed  a  wish  to 
change  their  belief:  it  is  very  likely  that  the  parents  interposed 
their  lawful  authority  to  prevent  it,  without  using  violence  or 
being  guilty  of  any  moral  wrong. — But  it  cannot  be,  that  any 
murder  was  committed  by  the  Jews  in  Tunis  upon  a  young 
man  desirous  of  conversion,  any  more  than  upon  father  Tomaso 


36  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

in  Damascus  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  his  blood.  And  surely 
the  falsehood  of  the  latter  charge  has  been  fully  proved  to  the 
satisfaction  of  our  bitterest  revilers  even ;  and  hence  we  must 
place  the  accusation  of  the  Tunis  missionary  upon  the  same 
category. 

A  desire,  corresponding  to  this  change  of  sentiment,  is  manifested 
to  obtain  possession  of  the  word  of  God  ;  and  they  eagerly  demand 
copies  of  the  Society's  editions  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Hebrew.  In 
the  last  two  years  5400  copies  have  been  sold  by  Mr.  Stockfeldt,  in 
the  Rhenish  provinces  ;  several  thousand  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  by 
Mr.  Ewald ;  and  in  Kbnigsberg  Mr.  Berghfelt  sells  copies  to  the 
amount  of  about  one  hundred  pounds  annually.  In  Poland  and  Jeru- 
salem the  missionaries  can  dispose  of  all  that  are  sent ;  and  the  last 
report  of  the  Society  informs  us  that  a  less  additional  number  than 
twenty  thousand  copies  would  be  utterly  inadequate  to  the  demands 
of  the  Israelites  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  also  very  observable 
that  the  translation  in  their  vernacular  dialect  has  excited  the  liveliest 
interest  among  the  long  neglected  females  of  the  Hebrew  nation.  All 
this  indicates  a  prodigious  change;  hitherto  they  have  cared  little  but 
for  the  legends  of  the  Talmud  and  rabbinical  preachments  ;  they  now 
betake  themselves  to  the  study  of  Scripture,  and  will  accept  the  Pen- 
tateuch printed  and  presented  by  the  hands  of  Christians !  This 
abundant  diffusion  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  has,  more  than  any  other 
cause,  contributed  to  abate  prejudice  and  conciliate  affection.  Mr.  J. 
D.  Marc,  in  a  letter  from  the  Society's  station  at  Offenbach,  affirms 
"that  the  conviction  the  Jews  now  have,  that  the  Christians  offer 
them  the  genuine  word  of  God,  and  even  to  the  poor  gratis,  makes  an 
unspeakable  impression  on  them,  and  begins  visibly  to  melt  their 
hearts."  And  even  in  Poland,  the  very  treasure  house  of  rabbinism, 
a  missionary  can  find  easy  access,  and  a  patient  audience  for  the 
truths  of  the  Gospel,  provided  he  be  well  supplied  with  the  word  of 
God  in  its  original  tongue.  Such  efforts  are  felt  and  estimated  far 
beyond  the  sphere  of  their  first  action  ;  a  kindly  sympathy  is  propa- 
gated through  all  the  distant  limbs  of  the  Jewish  body ;  and  traces  of 
the  zeal  and  growing  favour  of  the  Gentiles  are  discernible  even  in 
the  remotest  countries  of  the  East. 

If  the  missionaries  do  nothing  else  than  give,  or  sell  at  a  low 
price,  copies  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Hebrew,  their  visit  will 
no  doubt  be  highly  welcome  at  every  place  where  Jews  are 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  37 

settled.  But  it  is  to  be  hoped,  that  when  they  offer  Pentateuchs, 
apparently  Hke  those  used  in  the  Synagogue,  they  will  not  have 
added  to  them  extracts  from  the  prophets  with  unauthorized 
translations  annexed,  to  be  instrumental  in  diffusing  the  peculiar 
views  of  Christians  among  us  in  an  underhanded  way.  How 
far  this  fraudulent  system  has  been  carried,  I  cannot  tell ;  but 
the  only  two  copies  of  the  missionary  Pentateuch  I  ever  saw, 
(and  both  I  believe  were  brought  by  emigrants  from  Germany,) 
had  such  extracts  appended  to  them.  Ii  may  be  left  to  the 
missionaries  themselves  to  decide  whether  such  discoveries  ac- 
tually do  tend  to  convince  the  Jews,  that  they  offer  them  the 
genuine  word  of  God.  Nevertheless,  we  are  grateful,  at  least 
I  am  so,  to  ihem  for  their  zeal  in  carrying  the  whole  Bible  in 
large  quantities  to  those  countries  where  printing  is  not  yet  in 
use.  And  if  we  may  credit  the  report  of  one  of  these  travel- 
lers, the  Jews  there  are  eager  to  accept  the  holy  Book  as  a 
favour,  especially  since  nothing  is  said  about  conversions,  to 
judge  from  what  incidentally  dropped  from  this  gentleman  who, 
when  in  captivity,  sent  for  Jews  to  redeem  him,  and  claimed 
fraternity  with  them  by  repeating  aloud  the  confession  of  our 
faith,  consequently  renouncing  for  the  time  being  his  belief  in  a 
plurality  of  the  Godhead. 


Efforts  like  these  cannot  fail  to  attain  the  most  important  results ; 
for  the  blindness  of  Israel  is  still  caused,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  our 
Saviour,  by  their  ignorance  of  the  word  of  God ;  "  ye  do  err  not 
knowing  the  Scriptures."  A  deeper  acquaintance  with  their  own 
holy  books  is  an  indispensable  preliminary  to  general  conversion  ; 
and  we  must  bestir  ourselves  to  multiply  facilities  by  the  widest  pos- 
sible circulation  of  them.  The  wiser  and  more  Scriptural  method  of 
argument  now  pursued  by  the  missionaries  will  advance  the  work ; 
laying  aside  their  reasoning  from  the  Talmud  and  the  Mishna,  and 
perceiving  that,  with  the  Jewish  people,  a  right  intelligence  and  belief 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  the  only  foundation  for  the  belief  of  the  New, 
they  have  at  last  adopted  towards  their  Hebrew  disputants  the  method 
of  the  inspired  apostle ;  for  "  Paul,  as  his  manner  was,  went  in  unto 
them,  and  three  sabbath  days  reasoned  with  them  out  of  tJie  Scrip- 
tures:'' #*#*##* 

But  a  more  important  undertaking  has  already  been  begun  by  the 

D* 


38  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

zeal  and  piety  of  those  who  entertain  an  interest  for  the  Jewish  na- 
tion. They  have  designed  the  establishment  of  a  church  at  Jerusalem, 
if  possible  on  Mount  Zion  itself,  where  the  order  of  our  Service,  and 
the  prayers  of  our  Liturgy  shall  daily  be  set  before  the  faithful  in " 
Hebrew  language.  A  considerable  sum  has  been  collected  for  this 
purpose ;  the  missionaries  are  already  resident  on  the  spot ;  and  no- 
thing is  wanting  but  to  complete  the  purchase  of  the  ground  on  which 
to  erect  the  sacred  edifice.  Mr.  Nicolayson,  having  received  ordina- 
tion at  the  hands  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  has  been  appointed  to  the 
charge ;  and  Mr.  Pieritz,  a  Flebrew  convert,  is  associated  in  the  duty. 
The  Service  meanwhile  proceeds,  though  "  the  ark  of  God  is  under 
curtains ;"  and  a  small  but  faithful  congregation  of  proselytes  hear 
daily  the  Evangelical  verities  of  our  Church  on  the  mount  of  the 
Holy  City  itself,  in  the  language  of  the  prophets,  and  in  the  spirit  of 
the  apostles.  To  any  one  who  reflects  on  this  event,  it  must  appear 
one  of  the  most  striking  that  have  occurred  in  modern  days,  perhaps 
in  any  days  since  the  corruptions  began  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  It 
is  well  known  that  for  centuries  the  Greek,  the  Romanist,  the  Arme- 
nian, and  the  Turk,  have  had  their  places  of  worship  in  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  and  the  latitudinarianism  of  Ibrahim  Pacha  had  lately  ac- 
corded that  privilege  to  the  Jews.  The  pure  doctrines  of  the  Refor- 
mation, as  embodied  and  professed  in  the  Church  of  England,  have 
alone  been  unrepresented  amidst  all  the  corruptions ;  and  Christianity 
has  been  contemplated,  both  by  Mussulman  and  Jew,  as  a  system 
most  hateful  to  the  creed  of  each,  a  compound  of  mummery  and 
image  worship. 

It  is  surely  of  vital  importance  to  the  cause  of  our  religion,  that 
we  should  exhibit  it  in  its  pure  and  apostolical  form  to  the  children  of 
Israel.  We  have  already  mentioned  that  they  are  returning  in  crowds 
to  their  ancient  land  ;  we  must  provide  for  the  converts  an  orthodox 
and  spiritual  service,  and  set  before  the  rest,  whether  residents  or 
pilgrims,  a  worship  as  enjoined  by  our  Saviour  himself,  "  a  worship 
in  spirit  and  in  truth,"* — its  faith  will  then  be  spoken  of  through  the 
whole  world.  A  great  benefit  of  this  nature  has  resulted  from  the 
Hebrew  services  of  the  London  Episcopal  Chapel ;  it  has  not  only 
afforded  instruction  and  opportunity  of  worship  to  the  converted 
Israelite,  but  has  formed  a  point  of  attraction  to  foreign  Jews  on  a 
visit  to  this  country,  and  has  been  largely  and  eagerly  commented 
on  in  many  of  the  Hebrew  Journals  published  in  Germany.     In  the 

*  John  iv.  24, 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  39 

purity  of  our  worship  they  confess  our  freedom  from  idolatry  ;  and 
in  the  sound  of  the  language  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  they  forget 
that  we  are  Gentiles.  But  if  this  be  so  in  London,  what  will  it  be  in 
the  Holy  City  ?  They  will  hear  the  Psalms  of  David  in  the  very 
words  that  fell  from  his  inspired  lips,  once  more  chaunted  on  the 
Holy  Hill  of  Zion ;  they  will  see  the  whole  book  of  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets  laid  before  them,  and  hear  it  read  at  the  morning  and  even- 
ing oblation ;  they  will  admire  the  Church  of  England,  with  all  its 
comprehensive  fulness  of  doctrine,  truth,  and  love,  like  a  pious  and 
humble  daughter,  doing  filial  homage  to  that  Church  first  planted  at 
Jerusalem,  which  is  the  mother  of  us  all.  Our  soul-stirring,  and 
soul-satisfying  Liturgy — in  Hebrew — its  deep  and  tender  devotion — 
the  evangelical  simplicity  of  its  ritual,  will  form,  in  the  mind  of  the 
Jew,  an  inviting  contrast  to  the  idolatry  and  superstition  of  the  Latin 
and  Eastern  churches  ;  its  enlarged  charity  will  affect  his  heart,  and 
its  scriptural  character  demand  his  homage.  It  is  surely  a  high  pri- 
vilege reserved  to  our  Church  and  nation  to  plant  the  true  cross  on 
the  Holy  Hill  of  Zion ;  to  carry  back  the  faith  we  thence  received  by 
the  apostles ;  and  uniting,  as  it  were,  the  history,  the  labours,  and  the 
blood  of  the  primitive  and  Protestant  martyrs,  "  light  such  a  candle 
in  Jerusalem,  as  by  God's  blessing  shall  never  be  put  out."  *     *     * 

According  to  the  above  the  potent  spell  has  at  length  been 
discovered  !  The  Jews  can  be  converted  ; — not  by  the  sword, 
not  by  the  stake,  not  by  contempt,  not  by  argument,  not  by 
the  diffusion  gratis  of  the  New  Testament  and  controversial 
tracts — not  by  any  of  all  these  ;  but  by  the  establishment  of  an 
Episcopal  church  on  Mount  Zion  with  Hebrew  worship !  Wit- 
ness the  success  at  the  London  chapel,  with  eighty-five  con- 
verts say  at  80,000  dollars  per  annum  for  thirty  years  !  Sup- 
pose the  number  of  Jews  in  all  the  world  at  seven  millions,  of 
whom  may  be  20,000  at  Jerusalem,  how  long  would  it  take  at 
this  rate  to  convert  the  whole  ?  This,  to  be  sure,  is  rather  a 
difficult  problem  to  solve  for  even  the  best  mathematician,  be- 
cause the  data  are  all  unknown  ;  and  yet  this  ridiculous  scheme 
has  been  paraded  about  in  many  papers  of  this  country  and  of 
England  far  and  wide  as  some  wonderful  discovery  !  Is  the 
world  mad  'i  or  are  the  dark  ages  of  superstition  again  dawn- 
ing upon  us  ? 

Something    is   said  about    the   soul-stirring,   soul-satisfying 


40  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS, 

liturgy  of  the  Episcopal  church,  and  that  if  this  be  in  the  He- 
brew, together  with  its  charity,  it  will  affect  the  heart  of  the 
Jew,  and  its  scriptural  character  will  demand  his  homage. 
Pray,  who  has  told  the  Reviewer  that  the  Jew  feels  any  inte- 
rest whatever  in  the  liturgy  of  any  Christian  sect  ?  The  Catho- 
lic will  claim  that  his  worship  is  also  imposing ;  and  with  re- 
gard to  the  superstition  of  his  church,  he  will  be  as  ready  to 
defend  it,  as  the  Episcopalian  can  be  to  clear  his  from  the  charge 
of  its  not  being  in  consonance  with  Scripture,  which  is  alleged 
by  us.  It  is  however  possible  that  the  absence  of  image  wor- 
ship may  render  the  protestant  profession  less  obnoxious  to  the 
Jews  in  general  than  the  Catholic  system,  if  both  are  viewed 
as  matters  of  comparative  speculation ;  but  if  an  attachment  to 
either  is  claimed,  I  really  believe,  that  all  the  excellencies 
claimed  for  the  reformed  church,  in  all,  or  either,  of  its  branches, 
will  go  but  little  ways  to  reconcile  the  Israelites  towards  its 
adoption. — Moreover  to  our  view,  all  the  divisions  of  Christians 
are  alike  unscriptural,  since  the  disputes  about  the  sacraments 
and  the  succession  of  the  priests  from  the  apostles,  cannot  in 
any  manner  be  reconciled  by  the  Old  Testament  which  alone  we 
can  recognize  in  all  our  controversies  ;  despite  of  the  aspersion 
that  we  place  the  Talmud  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  Bible, 
which  is  not  the  case,  although  as  Israelites  we  are  bound  to 
respect  and  observe  the  enactments  of  the  wise  men  of  our 
people. — The  Reviewer  likewise  forgets  that  we  also  have  a 
liturgy,  and  this  also  in  Hebrew  ;  this  too  is  soul-stirring,  soul- 
satisfying  ;  and  we  truly  know  of  no  church  that  has  any  better 
mode  of  worship  than  we  have ;  for  the  very  Psalms  used  by 
Episcopalians  were  ours  before  Britain  was  yet  snatched  from 
the  power  of  savage,  unlettered  barbarians,  who  became  civi- 
lized chiefly,  we  may  say,  through  a  partial  knowledge  of  our 
religion.  Is  the  debt  to  be  cancelled  by  depriving  us  of  this  great 
blessing  1 — Of  one  thing  we  can  assure  the  Quarterly  Reviewer, 
that  the  few  members  of  Mr.  Nicolayson's  church,  although 
assisted  by  a  Hebrew  convert,  can  do  but  little  towards  con- 
verting the  Jews  in  Palestine  ;  and  if  I  mistake  not,  the  latest 
report  received  thence  did  not  tell  of  a  very  large  number 
attending  at  the  Hebrew  worship  of  the  Episcopal  church  on 
Mount  Zion ! 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 


41 


The  growing  interest  manifested  for  these  regions,  the  larger  in- 
vestment of  British  capital,  and  the  confluence  of  British  travellers 
and  strangers  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  have  recently  induced  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs  to  station  there  a  representative 
of  our  Sovereign,  in  the  person  of  a  Vice-Consul.  This  gentleman 
set  sail  for  Alexandria  at  the  end  of  last  September — his  residence 
will  be  fixed  at  Jerusalem,  but  his  jurisdiction  will  extend  to  the 
whole  country  within  the  ancient  limits  of  the  Holy  Land ;  he  is  thus 
accredited,  as  it  were,  to  the  former  kingdom  of  David  and  the  Twelve 
Tribes.  The  soil  and  climate  of  Palestine  are  singularly  adapted  to 
the  growth  of  produce  required  for  the  exigencies  of  Great  Britain ; 
the  finest  cotton  may  be  obtained  in  almost  unlimited  abundance;  silk 
and  madder  are  the  staple  of  the  country,  and  olive  oil  is  now  as  it 
ever  was,  the  very  fatness  of  the  land.  Capital  and  skill  are  alone 
required :  the  presence  of  a  British  officer,  and  the  increased  security 
of  property  which  his  presence  will  confer,  may  invite  them  from 
these  islands  to  the  cultivation  of  Palestine  ;  and  the  Jews,  who  will 
betake  themselves  to  agriculture  in  no  other  land,*  having  found,  in 
the  English  consul,  a  mediator  between  their  people  and  the  Pacha, 
will  probably  return  in  yet  greater  numbers,  and  become  once  more 
the  husbandmen  of  Judaea  and  Galilee. 

This  appointment  has  been  conceived  and  executed  in  the  spirit  of 
true  wisdom.  Though  we  cannot  often  commend  the  noble  Lord's 
official  proceedings,  we  must  not  withhold  our  meed  of  gratitude  for 
the  act,  nor  of  praise  for  the  zeal  with  which  he  applied  himself  to 
great  preliminary  difficulties,  and  the  ability  with  which  he  overcame 
them.  It  is  truly  a  national  service :  at  all  times  it  would  have  been 
expedient,  but  now  it  is  necessary.  To  pass  over  commercial  advan- 
tages— which  the  country  will  best  perceive  in  the  experience  of  them 
— we  may  discern  a  manifest  benefit  to  our  political  position.  We 
have  done  a  deed  which  the  Jews  will  regard  as  an  honour  to  their 
nation  ;  and  have  thereby  conciliated  a  body  of  well-wishers  in  every 
people  under  heaven.     Throughout  the  east  they  nearly  monopolize 

*  Dr.  Henderson  says  of  the  Polish  Jews—"  Comparatively  few  of  the  Jews 
learn  any  trade,  and  most  of  those  attempts  which  have  been  made  to  accustom 
them  to  agricultural  habits,  have  proved  abortive.  Some  of  those  who  are  in  cir- 
cumstances of  affluence  possess  houses  and  other  immovable  property;  but  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  seem  destined  to  sit  loose  from  every  local  tie,  and  are 
waiting  with  anxious  expectation  for  the  arrival  of  the  period  when,  in  pursuance 
of  the  Divine  promise,  they  shall  be  restored  to,  what  they  still  consider,  their  own 
land.  Their  attachment,  indeed,  to  Palestine  is  unconquerable."— BiA/uroi  Re. 
searches  and  Travels  in  Russia,  lb26. 


42  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

the  concerns  of  traffic  and  finance,  and  maintain  a  secret  but  unin- 
terrupted intercourse  with  their  brethren  in  the  West.  Thousands 
visit  Jerusalem  in  every  year  from  all  parts  of  the  globe,  and  carry 
back  to  their  respective  bodies,  that  intelligence  which  guides  their 
conduct,  and  influences  their  sympathies.  So  rapid  and  accurate  is 
their  mutual  communication,  that  Frederick  the  Great  confessed  the 
earlier  and  superior  intelligence  obtained  through  the  Jews  of  all 
affairs  of  moment.  Napoleon  knew  well  the  value  of  an  Hebrew 
alliance;  and  endeavoured  to  reproduce,  in  the  capital  of  France,  the 
spectacle  of  the  ancient  Sanhedrim,  which,  basking  in  the  sunshine  of 
imperial  favour,  might  give  laws  to  the  whole  body  of  the  Jews 
throughout  the  habitable  world,  and  aid  him,  no  doubt,  in  his  auda- 
cious plans  against  Poland  and  the  East.  His  scheme,  it  is  true, 
proved  abortive ;  for  the  mass  of  the  Israelites  were  by  no  means 
inclined  to  merge  their  hopes  in  the  destinies  of  the  Empire— ex- 
change Zion  for  Montmartre,  and  Jerusalem  for  Paris.  The  few 
liberal  unbelievers  whom  he  attracted  to  his  views  ruined  his  pro- 
jects with  the  people  by  their  impious  flattery ;  and  averted  the  whole 
body  of  the  nation  by  blending,  on  the  15th  of  August,  the  cipher  of 
Napoleon  and  Josephine  with  the  unutterable  name  of  the  Lord,  and 
elevating  the  imperial  eagle  above  the  representation  of  the  Ark  of 
the  Covenant.  A  misconception,  in  fact,  of  the  character  of  the  peo- 
ple had  vitiated  all  the  attempts  of  various  Sovereigns  to  better  their 
condition ;  they  have  sought  to  amalgamate  them  with  the  body  of 
their  subjects,  not  knowing,  or  not  regarding  the  temper  of  the  He- 
brews, and  the  plain  language  of  Scripture,  that,  "  the  people  shall 
dwell  alone  and  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations."* 

That  which  Napoleon  designed  in  his  violence  and  ambition,  think- 
ing "  to  destroy  nations  not  a  few,"  we  may  wisely  and  legitimately 
undertake  for  the  maintenance  of  our  Empire.  The  affairs  of  the 
East  are  lowering  on  Great  Britain — but  it  is  singular  and  providen- 
tial that  we  should  at  this  moment,  have  executed  a  measure  which 
will  almost  assure  us  the  co-operation  of  the  Eastern  Jews,  and  kindle, 
in  our  behalf,  the  sympathies  of  nearly  two  millions  in  the  heart  of 
the  Russian  dominions.f     These  hopes  rest  on  no  airy  foundation  ; 

*  Numbers  xxiii.  9. 

+  Look  to'lheir  present  state  of  suffering  in  Poland  and  Russia,  where  they  are 
driven  from  place  to  place,  and  not  permitted  to  live  in  the  same  street  where  the 
so-called  Christians  reside  !  It  not  unfrequently  happens,  that  when  one  or  more 
wealthy  Jews  have  built  commodious  houses  in  any  part  of  the  town,  not  hitherto 
prohibited,  this  affords  a  reason  for  proscribing  them ;  it  is  immediately  enacted 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 


43 


but  pleasing  as  they  are,  we  cannot  disguise  our  far  greater  satisfac- 
tion that,  in  the  step  just  taken,  in  the  appointment  just  made, 
England  has  attained  the  praise  of  being  the  first  of  the  Gentile 
nations  that  has  ceased  "  to  tread  down  Jerusalem  /"  This  is,  indeed, 
no  more  than  justice,  since  she  was  the  first  to  set  the  evil  and  cruel 
example  of  banishing  the  whole  people  in  a  body  from  her  inhospi- 
table bosom.  France  next,  and  then  Spain,  aped  our  unchristian 
and  foolish  precedent.  Spain  may  have  exceeded  us  in  barbarity ; 
but  we  invented  the  oppression,  and  preceded  her  'in  the  infliction 
of  it.  ' 

So  it  would  appear  that  the  sympathy  for  the  Jews  is  to  ad- 
vance the  commercial  prosperity  of  Great  Britain !  there  can 
be  no  objection  raised  against  the  scheme,  if  the  residence  of  a 
British  consul  is  to  be  of  any  reciprocal  benefit  to  the  Jews. 
Let  us  hope  that  this  new  connection  may  have  a  happy  result; 
especially  as  the  Reviewer  admits  that  England  was  the  first 
to  commence  against  us  those  dreadful  persecutions,  to  which 
we  were  subject  during  the  middle  ages.  But  why  does  not 
Britain  generously  emulate  France  to  remove  the  Jewish  dis- 
abilities? will  she  wait  to  pay  this  just  debt,  till  we  are  all  con- 
verted ?  or  does  she  think  Math  a  certain  Lord  W.  that  it  would 
be  blasphemous  to  emancipate  the  Jew?  Surely,  the  example 
of  many  countries  must  prove  to  every  one  of  her  statesmen, 
that  Jewish  freedom  is  nowise  detrimental  to  any  church-estab- 
lishment, and  this  in  countries  where  no  denomination  has  the 
preference ;  how  much  more  must  this  be  the  case  in  a  king- 
dom, where  the  sovereign  is  the  head  of  the  church  as  well  as 
of  the  state,  and  where  therefore  the  influence  of  a  handful  of 
Israelites  can  in  no  manner  whatever  prove  hurtful  to  the  estab- 
lished church. — Besides  all  this,  if  it  is  really  of  importance  to 
conciliate  us,  as  the  Quarterly  Review  would  seem  to  indicate, 
there  is  a  more  ready  mode  of  acquiring  our  co-operation  than 
by  converting  us,  which  is,  as  was  said  already,  and  as  com- 
mon sense  would  dictate,  to  remove  all  disabilities,  and  leave 

that  no  Jew  must  live  in  that  part  of  the  city,  and  they  are  forthwith  driven  from 
their  houses,  without  any  compensation  for  their  loss  being  given  them"  .  .  , 
"  they  are  oppressed  on  every  side,  yet  dare  not  complain ;  robbed  and  defrauded, 
yet  obtain  no  redress"  .  .  .  "in  the  walk  of  social  life,  insult  and  contempt 
meet  them  at  every  turning." — HerscheVs  Sketch,  p,  7. 


4^  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

US  to  worship  our  God  unhindered,  according  to  the  dictates  of 
our  conscience  and  the  blessed  commandments  of  Holy  Writ. 

It  is  matter  for  very  serious  reflection  that  the  Christians  them- 
selves have  cast  innumerable  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  Hebrew 
conversion.  To  pass  over  the  weak  and  ignorant  methods  that  men 
have  adopted  to  persuade  the  Jews — let  us  ask  whether  the  Christians 
have  ever  afforded  to  this  people  an  opportunity  of  testing  the  divine 
counsel,  "  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them  ?"  What  is  the  record 
of  the  Christian  period  of  the  second  dispersion?  A  history  of  inso- 
lence, plunder,  and  blood,  that  fills  even  now  the  heart  of  every 
thinking  man  with  indignation  and  shame  !  Was  this  the  religion  of 
the  true  Messiah  ?  Could  this  be  in  their  eyes  the  fulfilment  of  those 
glorious  prophecies  that  promised  security  and  joy  in  his  happy  days; 
when  his  "  officers  should  be  peace  and  his  exactors  righteousness  f 
What,  too,  have  they  witnessed  in  the  worship  and  doctrine  of  Chris- 
tian state  ?  The  idolatry  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches,  under  which 
the  Hebrews  have  almost  universally  lived,  the  mummeries  of  their 
ritual,  and  the  hypocrisy  of  their  precepts,  have  shocked  and  averted 
the  Jewish  mind.  We  oftentimes  express  our  surprise  at  the  stubborn 
resistance  they  oppose  to  the  reception  of  Christianity ;  but  Christia- 
nity in  their  view  is  synonymous  with  image-worship,  and  its  doctrines 
with  persecution  ;  they  believe  that,  in  embracing  the  dominant  faith, 
they  must  violate  the  two  first  commandments  of  the  Decalogue,  and 
abandon  that  witness,  which  they  have  nobly  maintained  for  1800 
years,  to  the  unity  of  the  God  of  Israel. 

It  well  imports  us  to  have  a  care  that  we  no  longer  persecute  or 
mislead  this  once-loved  nation ;  they  are  a  people  chastened  but  not 
utterly  cast  off;  "  in  all  their  affliction  He  was  afflicted."*  For  the 
oppression  of  this  people  there  is  no  warranty  in  Scripture  ;  nay,  the 
reverse ;  their  oppressors  are  menaced  with  stern  judgments ;  "  I  am 
jealous  of  Jerusalem  and  for  Zion  with  a  great  jealousy,  and  I  am 
very  sore  displeased  with  the  heathen  that  are  at  ease ;  for  I  was  but 
a  little  displeased,  and  they  helped  forward  the  afflict'ion.^''\  This  is 
the  language  of  the  prophet  Zachariah  ;  and  we  may  trace,  in  the 
pages  of  history,  the  vestiges  of  this  never-slumbering  Providence. 
No  sooner  had  England  given  shelter  to  the  Jews,  under  Cromwell 
and  Charles,  than  she  started  forward  in  a  commercial  career  of  un- 
rivalled and  uninterrupted  prosperity ;  Holland,  embracing  the  prin- 

*  Isaiah  bciii.  9.  t  Zacliariah  i.  15.    Vide  also  xiv.  12. 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  ,45 

ciples  of  the  Reformation,  threw  off  the  yoke  of  Philip,  opened  her 
cities  to  the  Hebrew  people,  and  obtained  an  importance  far  beyond 
her  natural  advantages  ;  while  Spain,  in  her  furious  and  bloody  ex- 
pulsion of  the  race,  sealed  her  own  condemnation.  "  How  deep  a 
wound,"  says  Mr.  Milman,  "was  inflicted  on  the  national  prosperity 
by  this  act  of  the  '  most  Christian  Sovereign,'  cannot  easily  be  calcu- 
lated, but  it  may  be  reckoned  among  the  most  effective  causes  of  the 
decline  of  Spanish  greatness."* 

We  cordially  rejoice  that  we  possess  the  favourable  testimony  of 
the  Children  of  Israel  to  the  justice,  respect  and  kindness  they  enjoy 
in  this  land ;"]"  but  our  efforts  should  the  more  be  directed  to  promote 
their  temporal  and  eternal  welfare.  "  They  forget,"  says  the  good 
Archbishop  Leighton,  "a  main  point  of  the  Church's  glory,  who  pray 
not  daily  for  the  conversion  of  the  Jews.":}:  We  must  learn  to  behold 
this  nation  with  the  eyes  of  reverence  and  affection ;  we  must  honour 
in  them  the  remnant  of  a  people  which  produced  poets  like  Isaiah 
and  Joel ;  kings  like  David  and  Josiah ;  and  ministers  like  Joseph, 
Daniel,  and  Nehemiah ;  but  above  all,  as  that  chosen  race  of  men, 
of  whom  the  Saviour  of  the  world  came  according  to  the  flesh. 
Though  a  people  deep§  in  their  sentiments  of  hatred,  they  are  acces- 
sible, even  when  beguiled  by  neological  delusions,  to  those  who  ad- 
dress them  on  their  national  glory ;  and  many  persons  living  can 
attest  the  gratitude  of  the  Hebrews,  as  of  old,||  to  those  who  seek  the 
welfare  of  their  nation.  They  are  not  less  concerned  than  ourselves 
to  observe  the  present  religious  aspect  of  Europe,  and  the  awful  ad- 
vances of  Popery.  Doubtless  the  great  and  good  prince,  alike  Chris- 
tian and  Protestant,  who  now  sits  on  the  throne  of  Prussia,  will  find 
that  his  affection  and  shelter  to  the  Israelitish  people  will  procure  him, 
in  the  hour  of  conflict,  no  insignificant  or  insincere  allies,  knowing  as 
they  do,  that  Protestantism,  which  delivered  its  followers  from  error, 
has  delivered  also  the  Hebrews  from  insolence  and  oppression.  Nor 
are  our  interests  in  less  fearful  jeopardy ;  both  as  a  church  and  as  a 
nation,  we  have  much  to  hope  for  in  the  welfare  of  the  people  of 
Israel ;  and — since  prosperity  is  to  be  the  portion  of  those  who  pray 

*  Hist.  Jews,  vol.  iii.  368. 

t  Vide  Herschel's  Sketch,  and  Rabbi  Crool,  in  his  "Restoration  of  Israel." 
i  Sermons  on  Isaiah,  Ix.  1. 

§  We  have  now  before  us  the  Jewish  Almanac  for  the  present  year,  in  which 
the  era  of  the  expulsion  from  this  kingdom  is  very  significantly  marked. 

U  "  For  he  loveth  our  nation,  and  hath  built  us  a  Synagogue."    Luke  vii.  2-5. 

S 


46  STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

for  the  peace  of  the  Holy  City* — "  Ye  that  make  mention  of  the 
Lord,  keep  not  silence,  and  give  Him  no  rest  till  he  establish,  and  till 
He  make  Jerusalem  a  praise  in  the  earth."t 

We  protest  against  the  insidious  plan  of  raising  prejudice  in 
our  minds  against  the  Catholics.  It  is  true  we  have  suffered 
severely  from  them  in  days  gone  by ;  but  in  modern  times  at 
least  Protestants  have  treated  us  with  no  more  kindness ;  wit- 
ness the  expulsion  of  Jews  from  Bremen  and  Lubec,  and  their 
restricted  state  in  Hamburg,  Prussia  and  England,  not  to  men- 
tion other  countries ;  whilst  in  Catholic  France  all  its  inhabi- 
tants are  upon  an  equal  footing.  Even  Turkey  has  outstripped 
England  and  Prussia ;  and  Hungary  has  made  a  great  advance 
to  effect  the  liberation  of  our  people.  So,  if  we  take  the  advice 
of  the  Quarterly  Review  we  will  favour  the  Moslems  more 
than  the  Protestants,  and  the  Catholics  more  than  either,  if  they 
give  us  greater  rights.  But  is  it  not  an  exhilarating  spectacle 
to  observe  the  growing  interest  felt  for  us  in  every  part  of  the 
world  ?  Here  is  England  on  the  one  side,  seconded  by  Prussia 
and  the  Northern  Colossus  endeavouring  to  draw  us  closer  to 
the  general  community,  we  will  say  from  a  mistaken  motive  of 
benevolence,  for  we  would  not  gladly  suppose  any  other  reason, 
by  an  amalgamation  with  the  mass  of  mankind ;  whilst  on  the 
other  side  many  nations  strive  to  make  our  burdens  lighter; 
and  lastly,  we  behold  the  Sultan  sending  forth  his  decree  to 
place  us  on  the  high  ground  of  equality  under  the  law.  Who 
could  have  believed,  and  this  not  many  years  back,  that  our 
people  would  have  become  so  important,  and  our  opinions  so 
great  a  subject  of  inquiry  1  Who  will  say,  that  the  hand  of  the 
Lord  has  not  done  it? — Well  can  we  pardon  the  weakness  of  a 
Leighton  to  pray  for  our  conversion,  whilst  on  every  side  we  see 
the  spreading  abroad  of  more  kindness  and  freedom. — O !  that 
we  might  deserve  this  great  blessing  by  a  steadfast  upholding 
of  our  ancient  system  of  faith,  and  by  a  strenuous  execution  of 
our  duties.  For  then  indeed  would  we  present  a  beautiful  spec- 
tacle of  union  and  strength ;  and  we  would  then  prove,  that  the 

•  Psalm  cxxii.  6.    Numbers  xxiv.  9.  t  Isaiah  hii.  7. 


STATE  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  47 

people,  who  adhered  to  the  law  of  Moses  when  it  was  threa- 
tened by  terrible  dangers,  are  yet  ready  to  defend  it  at  a  time 
when  the  allurements  of  selfishness  and  ease  are  appealing  to 
them  to  renounce  its  holy  ties.  Then  indeed  might  we  with 
confidence  look  forward  to  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  the  true 
son  of  David  and  the  restoration  of  the  captives,  when  "  Jacob 
would  rejoice,  and  Israel  be  glad  !"     (Psalm  xiv.  7.) 


LETTERS 


EaiAL  RIGHTS   OF  JEWS. 


LETTER  I. 

TO    WILLIS    G.    CLARK,    ESQ. 


It  is  not  often  that  I  deem  it  requisite  to  trouble  the  public 
with  a  contradiction  of  any  unfounded  statement  of  fact  or 
doctrine  regarding  the  Jewish  people,  which  finds  its  way  not 
unfrequently  into  the  newspapers  of  the  day.  The  task,  in- 
deed, would  be  a  difficult  one,  to  watch  all  inaccuracies  of  this 
nature,  and  more  yet,  to  find  prints  wilhng  to  admit  a  counter 
statement.  Hence  in  general,  in  common  with  other  persons 
of  my  persuasion,  who  are  unwilling  to  obtrude  their  grievances 
upon  the  pubUc  ear,  I  have  passed  over  with  perfect  indiffer- 
ence much  that  might  easily  have  been  contradicted ;  and  I 
recollect  of  but  two  instances,  in  a  period  of  a  ten  years'  resi- 
dence in  this  city,  that  I  ever  sent  a  reply. to  the  various  publi- 
cations which  appeared  in  the  papers  printed  in  this  place. 
Even  now  I  would  have  kept  my  views  to  myself,  were  it  not 
that  lately  quite  too  many  articles  about  the  Jews  have  seen  the 
light ;  and,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  that  nearly  all  have  spoken  in  a 
manner  not  consonant  with  that  truth,  and  those  feelings  of 
good  will,  which  we  have  a  right  to  expect  from  Christians 
who,  equally  with  us,  found  their  rule  of  faith  upon  the  revealed 
Word  of  God.  I,  accordingly,  avail  myself  of  the  permission 
you  have  given  me,  to  use  your  columns  to  make  such  inci- 
dental observations  as  may  occur  to  me. 

It  is,  in  the  first  place,  a  circumstance  not  a  little  remarkable, 
that  the  public  in  general  seems  to  be  very  ignorant  upon  most 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  49 

points  relating  to  our  history,  our  manners,  and  our  opinions. 
Were  our  nation  one  of  unknown  origin,  of  barbarous  habits, 
and  of  mystical  opinions,  ignorance  of  this  nature  might  be  ex- 
cusable ; — but,  since  our  history  extends  to  the  very  commence- 
ment of  civilization,  and,  since  our  habits  and  opinions  can  be 
observed  and  examined  daily  and  hourly,  inasmuch  as  our  dis- 
persion has  mixed  us  up  with  the  other  nations  of  the  earth, 
who  have  thereby  become  our  rulers,  often  our  oppressors,  and 
not  rarely  our  unrelenting  enemies  and  cruel  persecutors — it  is 
surpassing  strange  that  men,  of  otherwise  sound  information, 
should  display  so  little  acquaintance  with  subjects  which,  from 
the  religious  relation  they  bear  to  the  Jews,  are  to  them,  as 
well  as  to  us,  of  the  utmost  importance.  It  may,  however, 
be  conceded,  that,  though  manners  can  be  observed,  peculiar 
opinions  cannot  be  so  readily  discovered ;  still  the  ignorance 
relating  to  these  too,  could  be  easily  removed,  if  persons  about 
to  investigate  them  would  consult  our  own  writings,  instead  of 
resorting  to  works  which  bear  the  evident  impress  of  the  wri- 
ters' prejudice  and  of  an  intention  to  underrate  our  importance 
in  the  religious  world.  We  will  admit,  that,  during  the  ages 
of  superstition  and  darkness,  silence  was  often  imposed  upon  us 
by  the  terrors  of  persecution,  by  the  executioner's  axe  and  the 
rack  of  the  inquisitor.  Works  designed  to  exhibit  the  wrongs 
we  had  to  endure,  and  to  perpetuate  the  history  of  our  suffer- 
ings were  surrendered  to  the  destroying  flames,  depriving  us 
thus  of  the  melancholy  privilege  of  the  sympathy  of  posterity 
for  fallen  greatness.  Nevertheless,  enough  has  been  left  to  the 
Jews  to  teach  unto  others  what  is  their  opinion  of  the  Creator 
and  of  his  laws,  and  of  the  glorious  hope  of  salvation  which 
awaits  all  mankind.  Why  then,  let  me  ask,  are  we  not  more 
consulted  when  we  are  the  subject  of  discussion  ?  Why  will 
men  spread  false  views  when  the  truth  is  accessible  ? 

This  unphilosophical  proceeding  may  claim  some  extenuation 
in  countries  where  one  class  of  the  inhabitants  has  a  legal  su- 
periority over  the  other,  as  in  England  and  Germany,  and  Spain 
and  Italy,  in  short  in  nearly  all  Europe ;  for  then  the  privileged 
class  may  have  a  personal  interest  in  keeping  up  a  state  of 
ignorance,  in  order  to  sustain  the  prejudice  under  which  the 
legally  oppressed  labour,  and  to  prevent  a  removal  of  the  burden 


50  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

of  odium  and  disqualification  already  established  by  law  and 
custom.  In  countries  like  those,  selfishness  may  claim  such  a 
cgiuse  as  a  reason  for  pardonable  ignorance,  when  the  Jews 
are  represented  as  enemies  to  the  common  welfare,  and  their 
doctrines  as  hostile  to  the  public  security ;  there  the  bigot  may 
feel  himself  justified  by  special  pleas,  when  he  seeks  to  wipe 
away  the  name  of  Israel  from  the  roll  of  nations.  But  how 
ought  the  case  to  stand  in  this  country,  where  there  exists  no 
legal  disqualifications  against  us,  at  least  not  in  those  states 
where  we  are  most  numerous?  "Why  should  we  be  looked 
upon  with  distrust  in  this  happy  land — happy  because  possessed 
of  freedom  and  blessed  with  the  knowledge  of  that  heavenly 
Revelation  which  was  first  given  to  us — where  we  are  per- 
mitted under  the  protection  of  equal  laws  to  call  on  our  Maker 
in  our  ancient  language  after  our  own  manner,  undisturbed  by 
the  dread  of  the  tyrant  or  the  fear  of  the  inquisitor  1  Here, 
therefore,  it  is  indeed  surprising  that  the  crudities  of  foreign 
journals,  and  the  false  inventions  of  interested  travellers,  should 
find  such  implicit  belief,  and  that  works  of  men  evidently  pre- 
judiced should  obtain  currency :  whilst  the  only  sources  of  real 
information  are  not  suffered  to  see  the  fight ;  as  though  the  ana- 
thema pronounced  against  us  in  the  middle  ages,  and  retained 
in  tyrannical  countries  to  this  day,  was  to  be  transplanted  and 
cherished  also  in  this  land  against  the  Sons  of  Jacob,  as  the 
only  exception  to  the  benefits  of  equal  rights. 

Were  this  illiberal  spirit  residing  only  in  the  bosom  of  the 
ignorant  multitude,  who  are  often  swayed  by  ideas  imperfectly 
understood,  and  led  astray  by  clamour  artfully  fomented  by 
wily  demagogues:  I  would  be  content  to  submit  to  it  with 
silence,  as  being  the  fate  which  the  minority  upon  every  ques- 
tion of  expediency  has  to  sufier,  even  in  the  freest  country. 
The  majority  must  rule ;  and  if  this  majority  has  had  no  means 
of  obtaining  correct  knowledge,  it  is  but  too  apt  to  look  with 
suspicion  and  distrust  upon  the  opinions  and  doings  of  the  mi- 
nority, however  respectable  and  virtuous  this  minority  may  be. 
But,  unfortunately,  it  is  not  the  great  multitude  alone  who  act 
so  unworthily  ;  it  is  not  the  ignorant  mass  solely  who  wrongly 
suspect  Israel's  descendants,  who  speak  falsely  concerning  our 
character  and  our  religious  hopes.     Men,  who  from  their  posi- 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  51 

tion  are  the  makers  of  public  opinion,  the  preachers  and  the 
conductors  of  the  press  lend  themselves,  not  rarely,  I  trust  un- 
wittingly, to  the  propagation  of  unsound  views  concerning  us, 
and  are  thus  instrumental  in  keeping  alive  a  prejudice  which 
ought  long  since  to  have  been  buried  in  the  tomb  of  oblivion. 
It  were  time  indeed  that  each  society  should  do  its  utmost  to 
improve  the  condition,  both  spiritual  and  temporal,  of  its  own 
members,  without  interfering  with  that  of.  others,  mindful  that 
where  equality  is  the  law  of  the  land,  there  is  no  privileged 
class  (a).  Liberty  precludes  the  idea  of  toleration,  and  the  ma- 
jority, no  matter  how  large,  have  no  right  to  claim  any  merit  {h) 
for  leaving  the  minority  undisturbed  in  the  enjoyment  of  equal 
rights  ;  and  surely  there  exists  no  equitable  rule  to  render  odious 
the  opinions  and  to  restrain  the  actions  of  an  individual  or  of  a 
body  of  men,  unless  their  opinions  and  conduct  might  become 
injurious  to  the  public  weal  (c).  This  being  the  case,  we  ut- 
terly deny  the  right  of  our  Christian  neighbours  to  bring  up  our 
people  and  our  religion  as  a  constant  topic  of  discussion";  and 
what  is  more,  to  raise  funds  to  bring  about  a  defection  of  our 
members.  If  there  exists  such  a  right  in  the  majority,  the  same 
right  is  inherent  in  us ;  and  if  we  should  exercise  it,  as  exercise 
we  might,  would  it  not  cause  a  great  degree  of  just  indignation 
and  discontent  in  the  minds  of  the  majority  1  But  we  carefully 
abstain  from  interfering  with  the  opinions  of  others;  perhaps 
w^  are  often  too  timid  to  defend  our  cause,  even  when  attacked. 
Yet  this  timidity  even  is  praiseworthy,  as  it  proceeds  from  a 
fear  of  giving  offence,  and  of  shocking  the  prejudices  of  those 
differently  educated  from  ourselves.  We  therefore  would  be 
happy  indeed  were  others  to  profit  by  our  moderation,  and  to 
speak  of  us,  when  our  name  and  our  law  become  necessarily 
the  objects  of  discussion,  as  a  people  who  deserve  well  of  the 
rest  of  mankind,  as  the  first  who  spread  a  knowledge  of  the  One 
God,  and  who  preserved  a  pure  system  of  morals  when  gross 
idolatry  was  followed  by  the  great  mass  of  men. 

I  will  rest  here  for  the  present,  but  I  may  address  you  again 
on  this  subject  at  a  future  day  if  you  will  permit  me  to  do  so. 
Yours,  respectfully,  I.  L. 

Philad.  Dec.  12th,  1839. 


52  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS, 


LETTER  II. 


TO    WILLIS    G.    CLARK,    ESQ. 


Lv  my  first  communication,  1  remarked  :  "  And,  surely,  there 
exists  no  equitable  rule  to  restrain  the  actions  of  an  individual, 
or  of  a  body  of  men,  unless  their  conduct  might  become 
injurious  to  the  public  weal.  This  being  the  case,  we  utterly 
deny  the  right  of  our  Christian  neighbours  to  bring  up  our  peo- 
ple and  our  religion,  as  a  constant  topic  of  discussion;  and 
what  is  more,  to  raise  funds  to  bring  about  a  defection  of  our 
members."  It  is,  no  doubt,  known  to  you,  and  to  your  readers, 
that  much  labour  has  been  expended  of  late  years,  to  collect 
information,  such  as  it  is,  through  missionaries  and  other 
travellers,  with  regard  to  our  people ;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
that  many  efforts  have  been  made,  by  similar  agents,  aided  by 
liberal  contributions  from  various  nations  in  Europe,  assisted 
at  times  by  collections  made  in  this  country — to  spread  the 
Christian  religion  among  us.  All  modern  Christians,  even 
whilst  engaged  in  this  new  crusade  against  our  religion,  profess 
the  warmest  admiration  for  the  Jews  as  a  people,  and  acknow- 
ledge that,  in  past  ages,  we  have  suffered  long  and  unjustly, 
from  the  malevolence  of  those  who  ought  to  have  been  our 
friends  and  protectors.  But,  whilst  they  profess  this  friendly 
regard  to  our  nationality,  they  seem  to  have  taken  a  thorough 
dislike  to  our  religion.  The  world  is  now  too  enlightened  to 
murder  the  Jew  for  the  sake  of  his  abhorred  opinion  ;  yet,  still, 
the  cry  is  like  that  of  the  ancient  Roman:  '^Delenda  est  Car- 
thago," (Carthage  must  be  blotted  out,)  "  Israel's  name  shall 
be  no  more  remembered."  The  antipathy  which  formerly  was 
exhibited  against  our  persons,  as  well  as  pur  religion,  is  now 
confined  only  to  the  latter ;  as  if  the  world  could  have  no  peace 
whilst  the  Jews  existed  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  as  a  sepa- 
rate and  distinct  people. 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  53 

The  inquiry  now  naturally  occurs :  "  Who  are  the  Jews  ? 
who  are  these  formidable  men,  against  whom  a  Pharaoh  of  old 
used  such  active  measures  to  produce  their  extermination  ?  who 
are  they,  who  have  been  alike  dreaded  by  heathens,  be  they 
Greeks,  Phoenicians,  or  Romans,  and  looked  upon  with  distrust 
by  Mahomedans,  Christians  of  every  sect,  and  even  by  persons 
who  scorned  all  revelation  1  Yes,  who  are  the  Jews  ?"  If  a 
stranger  to  all  history  were  to  ask  this  question,  when  first  he 
discovers  the  singular  fact  just  described,  he  vi^ould  surely  be 
led  to  imagine  that  the  Jews  must  be  a  savage,  a  barbarous,  a 
brutal  race,  who,  wherever  they  appeared,  became  injurious  to 
the  rest  of  the  human  species ;  and  that  it  therefore  became  the 
duty  of  all  mankind  to  endeavour  to  promote  their  annihilation. 

But,  Mr.  Editor,  we  are  not  now,  we  never  have  been,  a 
barbarous,  a  savage,  a  brutal  race  ;  we  have  been,  and  are  yet, 
the  heralds  of  civilization,  and  the  pioneers  in  the  service  of 
the  Lord  of  all.  I  know  our  history  is  familiar  to  you ;  but 
still,  a  rapid  sketch  may  not  be  out  of  place. — The  world  had 
been  overflowed  by  the  waters  of  the  deluge,  (which  has  left  its 
traces  unto  this  day  on  the  highest  mountains,  and  thus  con- 
firms the  truth  of  our  Bible,)  and  the  small  remnant  of  Adam's 
descendants  that  had  been  spared,  began  again  to  multiply  on 
the  face  of  the  earth :  when  this  new  population,  by  degrees, 
forgot  their  Creator  and  invented  the  worship  of  idols,  things 
that  are  no  god  and  have  not  power  to  save.  The  sun  and 
moon,  the  creatures  that  tell  of  the  power  of  Him  who  called 
them  into  being  ;  the  restless  ocean,  whose  waves  beat  against 
every  shore ;  the  flowery  meadows,  the  running  streams,  the 
leafy  trees,  the  mountains  that  vomit  forth  liquid  fire,  the  hum- 
ble hillock,  the  beasts  that  devour  the  grass,  as  well  as  the 
crocodile  that  wallows  in  the  mire  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  in 
short  every  thing  which  strikes  the  outward  eye — and  lastly  the 
passions,  the  vices,  the  virtues,  and  the  vicissitudes  of  human 
life,  under  the  image  of  persons,  became  objects  of  adoration  of 
benighted  man ;  and  the  lowest  order  of  creatures,  no  less  than 
the  highest,  were  thus  formed  into  gods  that  each  man  looked 
upon  as  superior  powers.  Incredible  as  this  may  appear  to  us, 
it  is  nevertheless  the  simple  truth  that  the  most  enlightened 


54  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIRHTS  OF  JEWS. 

nations  of  antiquity,  the  Chaldeans,  Egyptians,  and  Persians, 
respectively  worshipped  such  non-entities  as  have  just  been 
described.  It  matters  not  whether  the  learned  among  the 
Sabasans,  the  fire-worshippers,  and  the  followers  of  Isis,  adored 
the  Creator  under  the  symbols  which  their  temples  contained ; 
admit  even  that  the  sun  was  to  the  first  the  emblem  of  the 
Supreme  One's  power  ;  the  fire  the  symbol  of  His  purity  to  the 
second  ;  and  that  the  last  meant  to  represent  His  unsearchable 
greatness  under  the  veil  which  covered  the  image  of  Isis  ;  and 
admit  this  and  more  if  a  philosopher  would  claim  a  high  intel- 
lectual order  for  idolatry : — still  the  multitude,  who  were  not 
admitted  into  the  secrets  of  the  favoured  priesthood,  were 
totally  unacquainted  with  the  emblematic  nature  of  their  wor- 
ship, if  emblematic  it  was;  and  consequently  ignorance  and 
gross  brutality  lay  thus  with  iron  sway  as  an  incubus  upon  the 
minds  of  the  great  mass  of  mankind ;  and  there  was  perhaps 
but  a  handful,  perhaps  no  one  left,  who  had  retained  any  idea 
of  the  God  who  had  created  all  by  his  word. 

This  fatal  veil  had  been  thrown  over  the  minds  of  men, 
devised  doubtlessly  by  cunning  tyrants  and  ambitious  priests  to 
obtain  unlimited  power,  and  exemption  from  toil  and  labour: 
when  there  arose,  in  the  country  watered  on  the  east  by  the 
Tigris  and  on  the  west  by  the  great  Euphrates,  a  man  whom 
all  nations  now  blessed  with  knowledge,  and  truth,  and  civil 
rule  call  their  benefactor,  as  being  the  one  who,  under  God, 
dispelled  the  mist  of  ignorance  and  false  worship  which  was  fast 
becoming  universal.  I  speak  of  the  shepherd  ancestor  of  the 
Jewish  people,  Abraham  son  of  Terah,  born  at  Ur  in  the  land  of 
the  Chaldeans.  It  was  he  who  forsook  the  idolatry  of  his  father 
and  of  his  father's  countrymen,  and  who,  wandering  forth  into 
the  distant  Canaan  and  Egypt,  proclaimed  the  existence  of  the 
Everlasting  One,  and  erected  altars  to  His  worship.  This  bold 
standing  forth,  this  daring  disregard  of  danger,  (for  tradition 
teaches  that  Abraham  was  thrown  into  a  fiery  furnace  by 
command  of  Nimrod,  and  saved  by  divine  interposition,)  and 
this  public  declaration  of  the  truth,  undismayed  by  the  terrors 
of  a  heathen  priesthood,  who  at  that  time  already  ruled  over 
the  Land  of  Promise,  were  pleasing  to  God,  and  he  promised 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  55 

him  that  he  should  become,  through  his  son  Isaac,  the  father  of 
a  great  nation  who  should  be  the  depositary  of  God's  covenant. 
(See  Genesis  xvii.  19.) 

Now  look  into  the  character  of  this  patriarch,  as  the  Bible 
gives  it  to  us,  and  you  will  discover  that  it  was  one  of  love  and 
good  fellowship ;  for  Abraham  is  represented  as  hospitable  to 
strangers,  active  in  the  service  of  the  country  of  his  adoption, 
and  mindful  of  acts  of  kindness  rendered  him  during  a  tem- 
porary sojourn  in  neighbouring  districts.  Look  at  the  develope- 
ment  of  his  mind,  and  you  will  discover  it  to  have  been  far  in 
advance  of  his  cotemporaries,  and  that  not  alone  was  he  con- 
sidered the  chief  of  his  own  clan  and  household,  but  also 
revered  by  those  persons  who  differed  from  him  in  religious 
opinions.  Abraham,  therefore,  and  his  doctrines  were  the  very 
reverse  of  anti-social,  and  he  was  beloved,  not  persecuted, 
because  of  the  system  which  he  propounded,  though  it  differed 
from  that  of  his  neighbours.  The  acknowledgment  and  the 
worship  of  but  One  God  did  not  prevent  him  from  fulfilling  the 
duties  which  the  state  demanded  of  him,  truly  and  faithfully ; 
and  consequently  his  peculiarity  of  opinion  and  religious  con- 
duct could  not  concern  those  around  him  as  members  of  the 
same  civil  community ;  on  the  contrary  the  chiefs  of  the  dif- 
ferent states  must  have  rejoiced  to  have  in  their  country  a  citi- 
zen who,  whilst  powerful  through  his  wealth  and  a  numerous 
retinue,  and  honoured  for  his  uncommon  wisdom  and  virtue, 
set  so  noble  an  example  of  obedience  to  the  general  laws,  and 
paid  strict  attention  to  the  rights  of  others.  In  this  light  is 
Abraham  represented  in  the  brief  and  detached  account  which 
the  Pentateuch  furnishes  us  of  him. 

If  the  first  father  of  the  Jewish  nation  was  thus  every  thing 
that  man  should  be  in  his  social  state,  patriotic,  kind,  honest, 
and  grateful : — we  shall  discover  similar  traits  in  his  immediate 
successors,  namely  his  son  and  grandson.  And  though  the 
latter  may  in  two  or  three  instances  of  his  checkered  life  appear 
in  a  light  somewhat  equivocal :  still  upon  the  whole  he  can  be 
proved  to  have  passed  through  many  and  sore  trials  as  pure  as 
few  or  none  can  boast  of.  He  too  was  enlightened  beyond  his 
countrymen,  and  when  the  chief  of  the  Mesopotamians  swore 
by  the  God  of  Abraham  and  the  vanities  which  Nahor  wor- 


56  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

shipped:  Jacob  attested   his  truth   by  invoking  the  adorable 
Creator  whom  his  father  Isaac  revered.  (Gen.  xxxi.  53.) 

Ask,  therefore,  what  was  the  origin  of  the  Jews?  We  will 
tell  you,  that  in  the  remotest  ages  our  ancestors  were  the  fol- 
lowers of  a  pure  worship ;  and  whilst  adorers  of  the  Lord  of 
all,  they  forgot  not  their  duties  toward  their  fellow-men,  but 
deemed  themselves  called  upon  to  live  in  peace  with  all,  and  to 
render  to  each  his  own,  and  to  suffer  wrong  sooner  than 
inflict  evil  upon  others. — The  account  we  have  of  the  blessing 
which  Jacob  bestowed  upon  his  children,  demonstrates  the  high 
state  of  mental  cultivation  which  he  must  have  attained,  and  it 
is  the  first  series  of  poetical  aphorisms  of  which  any  record 
has  come  down  to  us. 

Impelled  by  love  for  his  long  lost  Joseph,  Jacob  was  induced 
to  go  down  to  Egypt,  seventeen  years  before  his  death.  A 
decree  had  gone  forth  from  on  high  that  Abraham's  descend- 
ants should  be  strangers  in  a  land  not  theirs  for  a  period  of 
four  hundred  years.  The  land  chiefly  designated  was  the  land 
of  the  Nile.  Joseph,  sold  by  his  brothers  to  a  caravan  trading 
to  this  country,  was  at  length,  after  a  number  of  vicissitudes, 
brought  before  Pharaoh  to  tell  him  the  meaning  of  a  dream 
which  he  had  propounded,  according  to  the  custom  of  his  peo- 
ple, to  the  soothsayers  and  the  priests  of  his  idols.  Their  cun- 
ning, in  other  instances  sufficient  to  impose  upon  the  multitude, 
failed  to  satisfy  the  king,  who  then,  having  heard  a  good  report 
of  "  the  Hebrew  lad,  a  servant  to  the  chief  of  the  guards,"  sent 
for  him  to  consult  the  wisdom  of  God  with  which  he  was  en- 
dowed. For  purposes  known  to  Omniscience  the  heathen  ruler 
had  had  a  prophetic  vision ;  Jacob's  son  explaining  it,  foretold 
the  immense  plenty  which  was  to  be  followed  by  the  most 
afflictive  famine  ;  and  by  the  advice  which  he  gave,  the  means 
were  furnished  to  avert  by  timely  foresight  the  calamity  of  the 
impending  evil.  Unexpected  favours  were  showered  upon  the 
stranger  prophet ;  and  the  land  smiled  with  teeming  plenty,  as 
he  travelled  over  its  well  cultivated  plains,  rendered  fruitful  by 
the  labour  of  man  and  the  blessing  of  Heaven.  Anon  the  evil 
too  was  accomplished,  and  Canaan  and  Egypt  came  alike  to 
Joseph  to  purchase  bread.  Among  the  rest  came  from  the 
distant  Palestine  the  brothers  of  Joseph,  sent  by  their  father  to 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  57 

buy  the  provisions  necessary  for  their  household ;  and  upon 
their  second  coming,  when,  by  artificial  forgetfulness  of  their 
persons  and  language,  and  the  pretended  crime  he  had  dis- 
covered on  Benjamin,  he  had  induced  Judah  to  appeal  to  his 
love  of  justice  to  let  the  lad  go  up  to  his  father :  he  could  no 
longer  conceal  from  them  that  he  was  their  lost  brother,  sent 
before  them  to  effect  for  them  a  great  deliverance.  He  next 
told  them  to  bring  his  father  to  him,  and  promised  them  posses- 
sions in  the  best  part  of  the  land,  by  order  of  the  king.  Jacob 
thereupon  came,  as  we  have  said,  with  his  whole  family  to 
Egypt,  and  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Goshen  with  all  his  household, 
and  ended  his  days  surrounded  by  all  his  sons  and  blessed  with 
a  numerous  progeny,  all  acknowledging  the  God  of  Abraham, 
and  all  servants  at  the  altar  of  the  great  Supreme. 

Dec.  19th,  1839. 


LETTER  III. 

TO  WILLIS  G*  CLARK,  ESQ, 

After  the  death  of  Jacob,  his  descendants  increased  rapidly 
in  numbers  and  prosperity,  distinguished  by  their  peculiar 
tenets  and  observances  from  the  Egyptians,  in  whose  country 
they  were  sojourners.  But  though  prospering,  they  still  clung 
to  the  hope  of  being  destined,  at  a  period  not  too  remote,  to  be 
brought  back  to  the  land  sworn  unto  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob ; 
and  Joseph  besought  his  brethren  that  his  bones  might  be  re- 
moved from  the  land  over  which  he  had  ruled  for  a  space  of 
eighty  years,  whenever  it  should  please  the  Lord  to  bring  his 
promises  to  fulfilment. 

When  Joseph  and  the  people  of  his  age  had  been  removed 
from  the  midst  of  the  living,  the  new  ruler  of  Egypt  looked  with 

F 


58  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

the  eye  of  causeless  jealousy  upon  the  people  of  Israel,  whom 
he  represented  as  too  numerous  and  powerful  for  the  aborigines 
of  the  land.  How  much  difference  of  religious  views  may  have 
contributed  to  arouse  and  to  strengthen  the  suspicion  of  the 
heathen  king  and  of  his  priesthood,  we  have  no  means  of  ascer- 
taining ;  but  certain  it  is  that  the  occupation  of  shepherds,  which 
the  Israelites  followed,  was  very  distasteful  to  their  neighbours, 
who,  so  far  from  regarding  cattle  as  property  subject  to  the 
service  and  food  of  man,  looked  upon  the  ox,  the  lamb,  and  the 
stork,  as  also  upon  the  destructive  crocodile,  the  beetle  and 
other  animals,  as  objects  of  worship  and  veneration.  No  doubt 
they,  who  lived  exempt  from  the  public  burdens,  and  were  fed 
by  the  bounty  of  their  royal  chief,  (Gen.  xlvii.  22,)  became 
alarmed  at  the  existence  of  a  people  living  amidst  them  without 
paying  homage  to  their  authority,  and  without  worshipping 
after  the  religion  which  long  custom  and  the  enactments  of  the 
civil  law  had  made  the  religion  of  the  state,  inasmuch  as  in 
return  it  tended  to  keep  the  people  under  subjection  to  the  rulers, 
and  rendered  them  content  with  the  division  of  castes,  which 
to  this  day  prevails  in  the  whole  extent  of  Hindoostan,  and  ren- 
ders this  fairest  portion  of  God's  earth  a  moral  desert,  where 
the  lower  orders  are  subject,  soul  and  body,  to  the  controUing 
influence  of  nobles  and  priests,  without  their  ever  daring  to 
cherish  a  hope  of  one  day  equalling  those,  whom  they  so  im- 
plicitly obey,  in  power  or  knowledge. 

This  view  will  enable  us  to  understand  better  the  system  of 
slavery  which  was  enforced  against  the  Israelites ;  it  was  no- 
thing else  than  an  endeavour  to  lower  the  shepherd  strangers 
beneath  the  lowest  degree  of  the  Egyptian  population,  and  con- 
sequently, to  place  the  worshippers  of  the  God  €f  Abraham  in 
a  lamentable  contrast  with  the  adherents  of  idolatry.  In  this 
manner  was  their  public  influence  to  be  broken,  and  their  num- 
bers diminished  by  subjecting  them,  in  a  climate  often  exposed 
to  the  ravages  of  the  pestilence,  to  unusual  toil  and  hardship, 
which  would  naturally  engender  disease  and  death,  and  not 
alone  check  the  hitherto  rapid  increase,  but  also  thin  off  the 
population  already  existing. 

This  inquiry,  elicited  from  a  cursory  glance  at  this  subject, 
would  be  interesting,  if  pursued  to  a  greater  extent ;  but  the 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  59 

limits  of  the  columns  of  a  daily  paper  forbid  me  to  enlarge 
more  than  I  have  done  above,  nothing  doubting  that  your  intel. 
ligent  readers  can  readily  supply  any  omission.  Bui  to  pro- 
ceed : — The  object  in  view  was  but  partially  attained ;  the 
hatred  of  the  Egyptians  was  duly  excited,  even  unto  disgust, 
against  the  Israelites ;  but  the  efforts  at  their  diminution  sig- 
nally failed,  as  their  numbers  steadily  increased  despite  of  the 
hardships,  the  persecutions,  and  the  murders  which  were  in- 
flicted. 

The  tyrant,  who  had  devised  the  scheme,  was  no  more,  and 
another  equally  callous  to  the  calls  of  humanity  now  occupied 
the  throne :  when  the  time  foretold  to  the  Patriarch  for  the 
termination  of  the  servitude  approached.  A  messenger  was 
sent  to  demand  the  liberation  of  a  nation  of  slaves,  who 
built  the  towns  and  the  canals  of  the  mightiest  king  of  those 
days;  I  say  to  demand,  for  not  as  a  humble  suppliant  did  Moses 
appear  before  Pharaoh,  but  as  one  armed  with  power  to  en- 
force the  object  of  his  mission  with  terrors  derived  from  the 
highest  Source,  before  whom  the  kings  of  the  earth  are  as  no- 
thing and  their  armed  hosts  as  vanity.  The  Scriptures  give  us 
a  detailed  account  of  the  resistance  of  the  king,  and  of  his  bold 
saying,  that  he  knew  not  the  Lord,  and  that  he  would  not  let 
Israel  go  free ;  but  soon  also,  we  are  told,  was  he  compelled  to 
acknowledcre,  that  his  gods  were  unable  to  rescue  him  from  the 
infliction  of  the  One  whose  messenger  Moses  asserted  himself  to 
be,  and  he  said :  "  The  Lord  is  righteous,  and  I  and  my  people 
are  wicked."  The  struggle,  if  I  may  use  so  inappropriate  a 
word,  between  the  mortal  and  the  Unending  was  of  short  dura- 
tion ;  and  when  chastisement  upon  chastisement  had  been  sent 
in  rapid  succession,  the  Egyptians  were  made  to  confess,  that 
it  is  not  the  exalted  alone  who  have  a  claim  upon  divine  pro- 
tection, but  that  assistance  is  vouchsafed  to  the  lowliest  to  save 
them  from  the  grasp  of  their  powerful  oppressors. 

It  will  be  readily  perceived,  that  the  moral  effect  of  a  libera- 
tion through  the  forced  acquiescence  of  the  Egyptian  king, 
brought  about  by  the  evident  display  of  divine  power,  must 
have  been  much  more  lasting  and  beneficial  upon  the  freed  Is- 
raelites, than  if  Moses  had  been  permitted  to  induce  their  free- 
ing themselves  by  a  simultaneous  rising,  and  they  had  thus 


GO  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

triumphed  over  their  oppressors  by  the  force  of  their  own  arms 
and  the  exertion  of  bodily  prowess.  It  is  also  evident,  that  a 
body  of  six  hundred  thousand  men,  roused  to  desperation  by 
the  exquisite  cruelties  they  had  to  endure,  would  have  been 
formidable  in  the  extreme,  if  led  by  a  chief  of  such  bravery  and 
high  intellect,  as  the  son  of  Amram  evidently  was.  The  strug- 
gle might  have  been  long,  bloody,  and  desperate ;  but  the  ulti- 
mate issue  could  hardly  have  been  doubtful,  to  judge  according 
to  all  human  probability.  But  it  would  have  been  a  mere  phy- 
sical triumph,  by  brute  force,  where  hatred  and  revenge  would 
have  been  the  incentives  to  avenge  the  wrong  suffered,  and  to 
requite  for  personal  hberty  so  craftfully  withdrawn  from  unsus- 
pecting strangers,  who  had  fancied  themselves  secure  as  the 
invited  guests  of  the  Egyptian  people,  which  the  children  of 
Israel  certainly  were,  when  they  entered  upon  their  possessions 
in  the  district  of  Goshen.  The  torch  of  war  would  have  been 
lighted  in  city,  in  town,  and  in  hamlet ;  the  shriek  of  the  inno- 
cent woman  would  have  mingled,  in  the  sack  of  palaces  and 
the  overthrow  of  towers,  with  the  dying  groans  of  the  guilt- 
stained  menials  of  Pharaoh's  guards ;  children  too  would  have 
been  slaughtered,  and  the  aged  slain :  when  the  unchained 
slaves  had  drawn  the  sword  against  their  unrelenting  taskmas- 
ters. And  how  would  the  Israelites  have  settled  down  at  length 
when  sated  with  slaughter  ?  As  owners  of  the  soil  which  they 
had  conquered,  and  as  the  successors  to  the  wealth,  but  like- 
wise to  the  false  worship,  the  idolatry  and  the  vices  of  those 
whose  possessions  they  now  would  have  enjoyed.  It  may  freely 
be  left  to  the  judgment  of  every  enlightened  thinker  to  discover, 
that  thus  the  promise  to  Abraham,  that  the  Lord  would  be  the 
God  of  his  descendants,  could  not  have  been  fulfilled ;  for 
granting  that  they  were  freed  from  personal  bondage,  they 
would  still  have  been  moral  slaves  to  unreason  and  falsehood, 
and  in  their  turn  oppressors  of  those  whom  their  policy  or  fear 
might  have  spared. 

Let  us  therefore  adore  the  Unsearchable  Wisdom,  who  bared 
his  holy  arm  before  the  oppressors  and  the  slaves,  and  taught 
those  that  guilt  would  be  punished,  even  if  long  suffered  to  es- 
cape with  apparent  impunity,  and  impressed  upon  the  minds  of 
these,  that  it  was  a  Power  superior,  exalted  above  all  that  man 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  gl 

can  accomplish,  who  had  torn  asunder  the  bonds  of  their  servi- 
tude, in  order  to  establish  with  them  his  covenant  which  He  had 
made  v.rith  their  forefathers,  that  they  might  be  instructed  in 
the  doctrines  of  his  law  all  the  days  that  they  live  upon  the 
earth,  and  rely  with  confidence  on  his  protection,  since  it  was 
not  the  strength  of  their  own  arm  that  had  given  them  enlarge- 
ment. 

The  sojourn  of  the  Israelites  for  a  long  period  in  Egypt  is 
too  well  established  by  other  evidence  than  the  Bible  affords, 
to  need  any  argument  even  for  him  who  doubts  of  the  truth  of 
Revelation.  Discoveries  daily  made  by  those  who  search  amidst 
the  ruins  of  ancient  towns,  and  who  study  the  image-writing 
of  the  idolaters  of  old,  have  added  confirmation,  if  any  were 
needed,  to  the  account  of  Holy  Writ.  But  what  more  proof 
would  one  require,  than  the  existence  of  that  pecul  ia  race,  of 
which  we  modern  Jews  are  the  remains,  the  living  witnesses 
of  the  truth  of  the  books  of  Moses?  Indeed  it  cannot  be  other- 
wise than  that  a  nation  was  born  in  a  day ;  born,  so  to  say, 
from  the  chrysalis  of  slavery  and  ignorance,  to  the  full  matu- 
rity of  freedom  and  enlightenment ;  free  amid  nations  groaning 
under  the  yoke  of  tyrants — enlightened  alone  amidst  all  the  rest 
of  mankind  by  the  knowledge  of  the  God  of  truth.  A  slow 
developement  would  have  taken  ages  to  produce  so  glorious  a 
result ;  a  gradual  dawning  of  reason  would  have  failed  to  ori- 
ginate a  system  so  noble,  so  pure,  as  that  which  was  commu- 
nicated through  Moses.  No  I  it  cannot  be  ;  Grecian  and  Roman 
philosophers,  with  the  aid  of  far  greater  experience  than  was 
existing  at  that  early  day,  have  failed  to  arrive  at  the  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  sole  creative  Power,  who  cannot  be  represented 
by  form  or  image ;  how  then  could  a  whole  people  have 
reached  so  elevated  a  thought,  unless  it  be  that  it  was  given 
them  from  the  Supreme  One  himself,  and  that  all  received  the 
light  at  once,  as  the  earth  is  illuminated  by  the  bursting  forth 
of  the  brilliant  sun,  when  he  recommences  his  course  in  his 
daily  task? 

In  this  manner  were  the  Israelites  constituted  a  nation,  sepa- 
rate and  distinct  from  all  other  families  of  the  earth ;  in  the 
first  place  by  having  been  withdrawn  in  a  body  out  of  the  midst 
of  another  people,  (Deut.  iv.  34,)  and  afterwards  by  receiving 

r* 


62  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

such  a  constitution'  and  enactments,  as  would  preserve  thenn 
undestroyed  and  unmixed  to  the  end  of  time.  For  no  matter 
how  many  individuals  have  at  any  one  period  fallen  off  from 
the  service  enjoined  on  us,  and  have  by  force  or  inclination 
been  induced  to  embrace  the  practices  and  customs  of  other 
nations :  still  some  few  have  always  been  preserved  entire  in 
the  faith  of  their  fathers,  and  ever  and  anon  they,  who  had  haply 
strayed  from  the  course  of  duty  obligatory  upon  them  as  sons 
of  Israel,  have  been  brought  back  to  the  service  of  their  great 
Father,  by  the  chastisements  which  He  in  mercy  sent  unto 
them,  or  by  the  conviction  of  the  sinfulness  of  their  ways,  which 
the  study  of  the  heavenly  law  had  brought  home  to  their  con- 
science. It  seems  indeed  that  the  object  of  the  Lord  in  deliver- 
ing us  from  Egyptian  bondage  was  not  of  a  temporary  nature  ; 
but  that  what  was  then  effected  should  endure  for  countless 
ages,  and  not  cease  to  be  a  daily  spectacle  to  mankind,  for 
their  guidance  and  instruction,  in  order  that  the  regeneration 
of  all  the  sons  of  Noah  might  be  ultimately  consummated, 
through  the  descendants  of  the  beloved  servant  of  the  Lord,  in 
whose  seed  all  the  earth  should  be  blessed. 

Dec.  29th,  1839. 


LETTER  IV. 

TO  WILLIS    G.    CLARK,    ESQ. 


We  have  now  arrived  at  a  period  in  our  history  equally  im- 
portant with  the  creation  of  man ;  for  if  by  the  creation  of  this 
great  link  in  God's  work  a  being  was  instituted  to  be  the  ruler 
through  his  intellect  over  all  inferior  animals,  and  over  vege- 
table and  inanimate  nature :  then  was  this  intelligent  ruler  en- 
dowed by  the  promulgation  of  the  Decalogue  with  a  guide  to 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  53 

control  himself,  and  to  shape  his  conduct  so  as  to  promote  in 
the  best  manner  his  own  interest,  with  the  greatest  possible  be- 
nefit and  the  least  injury  to  the  other  members  of  the  human 
race.  By  the  bestowal,  therefore,  of  the  Mosaic  Dispensation, 
a  twofold  object  was  to  be  attained ;  the  first,  the  setting  up  on 
a  permanent  basis  of  the  worship  of  the  One  Supreme,  by  which 
means  ultimately,  though  gradually,  the  empire  of  false  belief 
and  superstition  was  to  be  subverted ;  the  second  point  to  be 
gained  was  the  promulgation  of  a  code  of  universal  liberty  and 
equality,  by  which  the  humblest  individual  was  to  be  secured 
not  only  in  his  personal  freedom,  but  also  to  have  his  property 
so  secured,  that  no  matter  by  what  means  his  patrimony  might 
have  been  disposed  of,  it  was  to  revert  to  his  possession  at  cer- 
tain fixed  periods,  which  occurred  twice  in  every  century. 

It  is  a  common  error  to  look  upon  religion  in  a  merely 
spiritual  light;  to  lay  the  greatest  stress  upon  doctrines,  to  the 
exclusion  almost  of  actions.  I  am  free  to  admit  that  doctrines 
must  be  the  substratum,  the  solid  foundation,  upon  which  the 
superstructure  of  good  works  must  be  established  (d).  Without 
a  correct  motive  the  best  action  lacks  sincerity ;  but  without 
actions  the  best  profession  is  nothing  but  an  empty  sound,  "  a 
charm,"  may  be,  "  that  lulls  to  sleep"  in  more  ways  than  one ; 
for  it  not  only  deceives  others,  but  the  professor  of  good  doc- 
trines is  apt  to  slumber  away  his  life  in  holy  ecstasy  of  moral 
indolence,  possessed,  nevertheless,  in  imagination,  of  superior 
excellence  and  holiness.  Religion,  therefore,  should  be  practi- 
cal as  well  as  theoretical ;  it  should  instruct  and  improve  the 
imagination  and  the  mind ;  but  it  must  likewise  enjoin  acts  of 
devotion  no  less  than  charity.  For,  be  it  remembered,  that 
each  of  us  is  an  individual  and  a  member  of  society ;  as  the 
first,  he  has  an  undoubted  right  to  claim  security  and  the  pur- 
suit of  his  own  happiness,  which  includes  the  worship  of  the 
great  Being  in  humility  and  truth,  and  to  render  Him  such  acts 
of  devotion  as  must  prove  that  the  worshipper  is  impressed  with 
his  Maker's  greatness,  and  looks  upon  himself  as  accountable  to 
the  Supreme  Judge ;  but  as  a  member  of  society,  he  is  bound 
to  contribute  to  the  well-being  of  those  who  with  him  are  com- 
ponent parts  of  the  mass  of  men,  who,  in  the  political  sense  of 
>  the  word,  are  termed  society.    Now  this  does  not  refer  to  those 


64  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

of  our  species  solely  who  live  contiguous  to  us,  by  the  limits  of 
the  same  town,  country  or  continent ;  but  also  to  every  indi- 
vidual man,  wherever  we  come  in  contact  with  him,  and  when- 
ever our  acts  can  conduce  to  his  benefit  or  injury.  Our  first 
duty  however  lies  towards  our  own  connections ;  then  to  our 
townsmen,  next  to  our  country,  and  lastly,  to  every  other  hu- 
man being ;  for  though  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  still  every 
man  is  our  brother. 

We  have  therefore  three  parts  of  religion ;  first,  religion  of 
the  heart,  sentiment,  or  doctrinal  religion ;  secondly,  religion 
of  worship,  or  display  of  devotion  towards  the  Creator;  and 
thirdly,  religion  of  charity  and  beneficence,  or  religion  of 
works  to  our  fellow-men.  Now  precisely  such  a  system  is 
that  which  was  given  to  our  ancestors,  of  which  the  Decalogue 
may  be  regarded  as  the  constitutional  principle.  In  the  first 
place  we  were  certified  that  there  exists  only  One  who  by  his 
potent  might  rules  and  controls  every  thing,  who  breaks  the 
yoke  of  the  bondman,  and  tells  him  to  go  free  unawed  by  the 
driver's  rod;  who  covers  the  land  with  verdure,  who  gathers 
the  ocean  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  and  who  bids  the  sun  to 
shine,  and  brings  forth  the  countless  hosts  of  the  starry  array. 
It  was  therefore  declared  unlawful  to  represent  the  Deity  under 
an  outward  image  or  symbol,  or  to  associate  unto  Him  any 
other  power  or  being,  to  be  worshipped  conjointly  or  singly. 
For  the  Creator  alone  is  the  King  over  all,  consequently  nothing 
can  have  rule  without  Him,  nothing  can  be  placed  beside  Him. 
And  because  no  human  eye  has  ever  beheld  a  similitude  or  in- 
carnation of  the  Godhead,  it  must  be  evidently  futile  to  repre- 
sent the  Unseen  and  the  Exalted  by  the  image  of  the  things  of 
the  earth,  or  the  image  of  things  the  creation  of  the  human 
mind.  Idolatry  and  polytheism  were  accordingly  held  up  as 
odious  offences  against  the  Supreme  Majesty,  who  avenges  the 
transgression  of  rebellious  sinners,  but  who  is  of  infinite  mercy 
to  those  who  love  his  commandments. 

In  the  second  place  we  were  enjoined  to  sanctify  the  last  day 
of  the  week  as  the  Lord's  day,  to  abstain  thereon  from  labour, 
and  to  regard  it  as  a  token  of  God's  power  and  protection ;  in 
order  that  thereon  we  might,  when  abstaining  from  our  daily 
toil,  Teflect  on  our  way,  and  renew  in  our  hearts  and  the  hearts 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  ^ 

of  our  children  and  dependants,  the  love  of  the  Lord,  for  the 
manifold  blessings  we  hourly  enjoy  from  his  hands. 

In  the  third  place,  the  love  of  our  fellow-man  was  strictly 
dwelt  upon,  and  we  were  ordered  not  to  injure  him  in  the  least 
of  his  possessions.  For  the  Beneficent  One  has  showered  his 
gifts  upon  all  his  creatures,  and  his  table  is  spread  for  all,  and 
life,  home,  wealth  and  name  are  alike  blessings  proceeding  from 
Him  ;  and  let  no  man  therefore  dare  presumptuously  to  rise  up 
and  disturb  in  his  iniquity  the  order  which  universal  Justice  has 
established. 

It  is  not  ignorance,  therefore,  if  the  Jew  clings  with  unshaken 
hope,  with  unwavering  faith,  to  the  undivided  Unity,  which  his 
fathers  adored ;  it  is  not  blindness,  if  he  rejects  doctrines  which 
the  prophets  knew  not ;  it  is  not  superstition  if  he  mixes,  in  his 
system,  the  outward  worship  of  God  and  the  observance  of 
ceremonial  duties  (e),  with  love  and  duty  to  the  state  and  his 
fellow-men.  For  if  he  is  warranted  in  supposing  that  acts  of 
charity  are  favourably  received  by  the  Judge  of  all  flesh !  he  is 
likewise  bound  to  believe  that  devotional  exercises  and  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures,  will  be  acceptable  in  the  presence  of 
the  Father  of  all.  The  Mosaic  dispensation,  as  Christians  no 
less  than  Jews  must  acknowledge,  is  from  God,  it  is  the  emana- 
tion of  Divine  inspiration ;  and  the  duties,  both  civil  and  devo- 
tional which  it  demands,  must  be  alike  conducive  to  promote 
our  peace  on  earth,  and  transport  our  souls  to  the  happiness 
destined  for  the  righteous. 

Much  which  the  law  of  Moses  contains  is  of  universal  appli- 
•  cability  for  all  mankind,  and,  being  what  is  termed  the  moral 
law,  must  be  in  a  measure  the  rule  of  life  for  all  mankind,  as 
soon  as  they  become  acquainted  with  these  precepts.  But 
much  again  of  the  law  was  given  as  a  guide  for  Israel  alone, 
they  having  been  selected  by  Providence,  for  the  time  being 
and  ages  yet  to  come,  as  the  depositary  of  his  benign  code,  till, 
by  gradual  change  and  gradual  education,  the  other  nations 
might  likewise  become  at  last  fit  and  willing  to  receive  his 
commandments.  The  ceremonial  law,  proper,  was  therefore 
ordained  to  preserve  distinct  and  separate  the  sons  of  Jacob  as 
a  peculiar  people  from  amidst  all  nations.     Ordinances  were 


66  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

instituted  which  were  to  remind  them  ever  of  their  high  destiny, 
and  which  should  prevent  them  from  becoming  mingled  up  with 
the  other  families  of  the  earth.  These  institutions  are  however 
in  a  measure  physical ;  for  instance,  the  prohibition  of  the  food 
of  gentiles ;  the  partaking  of  the  flesh  of  many  animals,  and  the 
connection  by  marriage  with  others  than  the  descendants  of  the 
patriarchal  stock  and  those  having  become  joined  to  them  by 
voluntary  adoption  of  the  law.  But  others  were  of  a  moral 
nature ;  for  instance  the  commandment  against  the  adoption  of 
heathen  rites,  and  the  practice  of  superstitious  customs  by  which 
vain  man  would  fain  dive  into  the  hidden  recesses  of  the  fu- 
ture. These  ordinances,  though  to  the  views  of  some  perhaps 
of  trifling  import,  were  nevertheless  admirably  calculated  to 
effect  the  purpose  of  their  institution ;  they  were  matters  of 
daily  recurrence,  and  consequently  were  ever  before  the  eyes 
of  every  Israelite,  and  he  was  constantly  called  upon  to  remain 
a  true  and  faithful  servant,  inasmuch  as  he  daily  had  occasion 
to  abstain  from  following  his  inclinations,  and  to  practise  some 
act  of  devotion,  in  obedience  to  the  divine  behest. 

Besides  this  there  were  several  ceremonies  which  were  de- 
nominated, signs.  The  chief  are,  the  rite  of  circumcision,  and 
the  institution  of  the  Sabbath.  As  soon  as  one  week  had  passed 
over  the  head  of  every  new  pilgrim  in  the  vale  of  life,  he  was 
to  be  sealed  with  the  sign  of  the  blessed  covenant,  in  order  that 
in  his  flesh  he  might  ever  bear  the  memorial  of  the  love  of  his 
heavenly  Father  for  his  chosen  people.  And  when  in  after-life 
he  toils  at  his  daily  task,  the  recurrence  of  each  seventh  day 
w^as  to  confirm  him  in  the  devotion  of  his  supreme  Benefactor, 
who  has  instituted  a  time  of  rest  for  the  heavily  laden,  that  each 
and  all  might  have  time  to  be  refreshed  ever  and  anon  during 
their  sojourn  on  earth,  and  that  the  poor  might  not  sink  under 
the  writhing  influence  of  unmitigated  toil,  of  unceasing  labour. 
This  day  was  to  be  the  sign  of  God's  universal  power  and  uni- 
versal benevolence,  that  He  is  the  Creator  of  all,  and  the  Helper 
of  him  who  is  subject  to  the  service  of  man. 

This  was  the  legislation  on  Sinai,  and  this  is  the  law  which 
the  Jews  revere ;  the  legacy  which  has  descended  unto  them 
from  their  glorious  ancestors  ;  a  blessing  confirmed  to  them  by 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQbAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  qj 

a  succession  of  prophets;  consecrated  by  a  long  line  of  martyrs, 
of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy,  and  who  died  in  purity, 
glorifying  the  Lord  their  Father  and  King. 


Jan.  27th,  1840. 


LETTER  V. 


TO    WILLIS    G.    CLARK,    ESQ* 


Is  the  preceding  it  has  been  shown,  that  the  law  of  the 
Israelites,  the  constitution  of  their  commonwealth,  was  based 
upon  the  cardinal  principles  of  honour  to  God  and  love  to  our 
fellow-men.  The  love  to  God  was  to  displace  superstitious 
reverence  and  the  adoring  of  vanities  as  did  the  heathens  of 
those  days ;  and  by  following  the  precepts  relative  to  the  rights 
and  liberties  of  our  species,  that  barbarous  code  of  exaction 
and  cruelty,  fit  companions  of  superstition  and  idolatry,  under 
which  the  world  then  groaned,  was  to  find  no  resting-place  in 
the  commonwealth  of  the  people  redeemed  from  slavery  under 
the  guidance  of  that  good  and  exalted  man,  the  prophet  Moses, 
the  messenger  of  Heaven.  The  constitution  of  the  Pentateuch 
was  essentially  the  foundation  of  a  free  government  (/).  Every 
citizen  was  eligible  to  all  civil  offices,  and  could  be  appointed  a 
teacher  of  the  religion  of  his  God,  although  the  priesthood,  or, 
more  correctly  speaking,  the  outward  temple-service,  was  set 
apart  for  the  family  of  Levi.  Life,  and  property,  and  liberty, 
and  the  uncontrolled  pursuit  of  happiness  were  to  remain  invio- 
late in  the  possession  of  each  member  of,  and  sojourner  in,  the 
state,  unless  the  same  had  been  pronounced  forfeited  by  a 
judicial  decision,  for  the  voluntary  crime  of  the  possessor  of 
these  goods.  No  man  was  to  be  supposed  guilty,  not  even  the 
reputed  murderer,  "  until  he  had  stood  before  the  congregation 


68  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

to  judgment."  (Num.  xxxv.  12.)  As  regards  the  outward  state 
of  the  republic,  aggression  upon  foreign  nations  was  entirely 
prohibited ;  and  a  state  of  peace  recommended  as  the  greatest 
blessing  and  reward  for  obedience  to  the  divine  will.  (Levit. 
xxvi.  6.)  The  only  permitted  exteptions  to  warfare  were  the 
wars  against  the  tribes  of  Midian  and  Amalek,  and  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Canaanitish  nations  from  the  country  which  was 
promised  unto  the  Israelites  for  their  dwelling ;  but  other  war- 
fare seems  to  have  been  permitted  only  in  case  of  invasion 
from  without.  In  the  best  days  of  our  state,  that  is,  imme- 
diately after  the  death  of  Joshua,  the  people  seem  to  have  for- 
gotten almost  the  use  of  arms ;  so  much  so,  that  they  became 
an  easy  prey  to  the  rulers  of  the  surrounding  nations.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  a  war  of  aggression  was  ever  waged,  with 
the  exception  of  the  conquest  of  Laish  by  a  portion  of  the 
tribe  of  Dan,  from  the  occupation  of  Palestine  by  Joshua  and 
his  successors,  till  the  times  of  David ;  and  it  is  doubtful  even 
whether  his  numerous  wars  were  not  all  of  them  defensive 
against  the  inroads  of  the  Edumeans,  Ammonites,  Syrians, 
Mesopotamians,  and  their  allies.  To  be  sure,  acts  were  com- 
mitted, which,  under  the  improved  state  of  society  which  now 
blesses  the  world,  would  be  called  barbarous  and  unnecessarily 
cruel ;  but  we  must  not  forget,  that  the  people  beyond  Palestine 
were  yet  unacquainted  with  the  rules  of  civilized  warfare,  though 
Heaven  knows  how  cruel  that  is,  how  many  millions  now  still 
mourn  over  ruined  fortunes,  over  maimed  limbs,  over  the 
slaughter  of  fathers  and  brothers,  and  sons  and  husbands,  and 
those  dearly  beloved,  in  the  long  wars  consequent  upon  the 
revolution  in  France,  and  the  accession  of  the  Corsican  adven- 
turer, the  famous,  great,  but  bad  Napoleon  Buonaparte  to  the 
imperial  crown  of  that  crime  and  blood-stained  land  ;  we  must 
not  forget  that  the  neighbours  of  the  Israelites  were  only  too 
jealous  of  the  prosperity  of  our  people;  perhaps  similar  cruelties 
may  have  been  perpetrated  against  the  prisoners  which  had 
fallen  into  the  enemies'  hands;  besides  this,  it  must  not  be  lost 
sight  of,  that  the  history  of  the  Bible  is  too  succinct  to  afford  us 
more  than  a  glimpse  at  the  history  of  the  times  which  are 
recorded  there.  All  these  circumstances  taken  together  may 
perhaps  plead  an  extenuation  of  much  that  may  strike  us  as 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  69 

counter  to  the  ideas  of  humanity  now  prevalent ;  although  it 
would  be  a  mere  act  of  supererogation  to  excuse  that  which 
the  Bible  has  left  us  as  a  record  only,  but  not  as  an  example 
for  our  imitation.  After  the  death  of  David,  to  the  subversion 
of  our  government,  although*  many  intestine  wars  took  place, 
still  the  heathens  came  seldom  in  contact  with  the  arms  of  the 
Israelites,  unless  they  made  incursions  for  plunder  or  conquest 
into  Palestine. — Very  often  peace  and  treaties  of  good-will 
were  established  with  heathen  nations,  especially  the  Sidonians 
and  Tyrians ;  and  during  the  long  reign  of  Solomon  the  sword 
rested  altogether,  and  universal  peace  shed  its  blessings  through 
the  then  extensive  dominions  of  the  king  of  the  Israelites,  who 
dwelled  each  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree,  like  the  sand 
upon  the  sea-border  in  multitude,  eating,  and  drinking,  and 
rejoicing.  (1  Kings  iv.  20.) 

Happy  indeed  had  we  been  !  blessed  indeed  would  have  been 
our  lot !  had  we  but  known  our  own  good,  had  we  but  learned 
to  lean  for  support  upon  the  Rock  of  our  salvation,  the  Shield 
of  our  defence !  Israel,  however,  grew  tired  of  the  service  of 
their  Maker,  and  they  hewed  unto  themselves  broken  cisterns, 
which  could  not  hold  water. — Soon  after  the  death  of  Joshua 
that  curse  of  ancient  days,  idolatry,  began  to  prevail  among 
the  Israelites,  followed  by  all  its  appropriate  evils,  neglect  of 
the  other  provisions  of  the  law ;  for  with  heathen  worship, 
heathen  abominations  were  introduced,  and  the  land  presented 
deeds  of  wickedness  which  called  for  the  threatened  visitations. 
Ever  and  anon  the  rod  of  chastisement,  the  sword  of  predatory 
enemies,  made  the  people  feel  their  unworthiness ;  and  then 
would  usually  arise  a  chief,  and  once  a  high-souled  female 
leader,  who,  animated  by  a  sincere  reverence  for  the  law, 
would  inspire  his  countrymen  with  a  renewed  devotion  to  the 
Lord  God,  and  lead  them  forth  to  strike  for  their  home,  their 
wives,  their  children,  their  law,  and  the  sanctuary  of  their 
heaven-born  religion.  The  enemy  was  ever  overcome  by  such 
means  as  would  hardly  seem  adequate  for  the  end ;  but  God 
strove  for  them  when  they  repented ;  they  fought  for  their 
despoiled  freedom ;  they  opposed  the  invaders  of  their  home- 
steads and  of  their  beloved  country,  and  the  song  of  triumph 
proclaimed   aloud,   that   Israel  was   free  again.    During   the 


70  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

administration  of  such  a  chief-magistrate,  who  was  usually 
called  a  judge,  the  people  remained  faithful  to  the  law  of  God, 
and  the  land  prospered,  and  no  war  or  rumour  of  war  interrupt- 
ed the  ploughing  and  the  harvesting,  and  no  misrule  of  a  too 
powerful  chief  interfered  with  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the 
citizens  of  the  Mosaic  commonwealth.  For  the  judges  were, 
in  certain  instances  at  least,  elected  for  their  valour  and  the 
gratitude  which  was  due  to  them  for  the  share  which  they  had 
borne  in  the  liberation  of  the  people.  It  is  impossible  to  tell 
from  the  scanty  materials  left  us  in  the  Book  of  Judges,  in  what 
manner  all  the  judges  obtained  their  authority ;  but  as  there 
was  no  hereditary  succession,  and  as  some  were  called  to  their 
station  by  the  voice  of  the  people :  we  have  a  fair  right  to  con- 
clude that  the  judge  for  the  time  being  was  always  in  that 
office  by  the  choice,  or  at  all  events,  consent,  of  the  nation 
itself.  There  is  one  instance  of  usurpation,  in  Abimelech, 
which  lasted  about  three  years,  and  besides  we  have  two 
records  of  civil  wars,  which  disfigure  the  page  of  our  history 
in  addition  to  the  idolatry  and  forgetfulness  of  the  Mosaic  code 
so  often  occurring ;  but  with  all  this,  the  period  of  about  350 
years  from  the  death  of  Moses  to  the  accession  of  Saiil  must 
have  been  one  of  national  prosperity. — Education  had  become 
diffused  through  the  land,  and  the  elegant  arts,  such  as  poetry 
and  its  kindred  science,  music,  were  extensively  cultivated;  for 
instance,  the  song  of  Deborah  in  the  earlier  part,  and  the  prayer 
of  Hannah  nearer  the  termination  of  this  period ;  the  people 
moreover  were  jealous  of  their  national  honour,  and  quick  in 
perceiving  any  infraction  of  their  rights ;  for  example,  the  war 
against  the  tribe  of  Benjamin  and  the  complaint  about  the  sons 
of  Samuel. 

Notwithstanding  the  practicability  of  self-government  thus 
clearly  established,  the  Israelites  became  tired  of  an  administra- 
tion without  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  royalty,  as  was  the 
case  with  all  the  other  nations  around  them.  Perhaps  they  felt 
the  want  of  union  among  the  different  tribes,  and  the  apparent 
feebleness  of  a  chief,  who  had  to  consult  the  wishes  of  the 
people  in  all  he  attempted.  They  forgot  that  this  feebleness  of 
the  chief  was  a  blessing  to  the  people,  if  they  understood  best 
their  own  interests,  and  could  be  brought  to  contribute,  of  a  free 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  71 

accord,  to  the  welfare  and  defence  of  the  state.  In  vain  did 
the  good  Samuel  expostulate  with  them  upon  their  ruinous 
folly ;  in  vain  did  he  explain  to  them  the  prerogatives  which 
would  by  so  much  diminish  the  popular  rights,  and  render  the 
king,  in  a  measure,  irresponsible  for  his  conduct,  and  careless  of 
their  remonstrances ;  they  lent  a  deaf  ear,  and  said,  "  Nay ; 
but  we  will  have  a  king  over  us,  that  we  also  may  be  like  all 
tlie  nations,  and  that  our  king  may  judge  us,  and  go  out  before 
us,  and  fight  our  battles."  (1  Sam.  viii.  19,  20.)  A  king  was 
chosen;  and  thus  what  was  merely  permitted  as  a  contingency, 
(Deut.  xvii.  15,)  became  the  new  order  of  things  in  Palestine. 
The  republic  was  changed  into  a  limited  monarchy ;  and  as 
the  king  could  do  no  wrong,  we  soon  find  how  he  and  his 
favourite  officers  frequently  violated  the  rights  of  personal 
security,  in  opposition  to  the  dictates  of  the  law.  Nevertheless, 
one  of  the  objects  desired,  that  of  security  from  invasion,  was 
attained ;  and  for  the  space  of  a  hundred  years  no  nation 
equalled  that  of  Israel  in  the  magnitude  of  its  triumph,  or  the 
splendour  of  its  royal  household. 

To  this  period  we  owe  the  undying  Psalms  of  David,  of 
Asaph,  and  other  immortal  masters  of  song;  Solomon's  wisdom 
became  renowned  among  all  the  sons  of  the  East,  and  crowds 
hastened  to  Jerusalem  to  imbibe  knowledge  from  his  lips ;  the 
temple  of  God  was  reared  noiselessly  by  ready  hands  and  skil- 
ful hearts,  and  the  fame  of  the  people  living  in  the  narrow  strip 
on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  spread  unto  the  con- 
fines of  the  islands  of  India,  and  the  coasts  of  distant  Spain. 
Commerce  flourished,  and  the  celebrated  Tadmor  in  the 
wilderness  was  built  as  the  centre  for  the  caravan  trade, 
between  the  luxurious  and  sunny  East  and  the  more  hardy 
and  adventurous  sons  of  occidental  Asia.  Do  I  assume  too 
much,  if  to  this  period  of  intercourse  between  civilization  and 
barbarism  I  ascribe  the  introduction  of  letters  into  Greece,  and 
a  dawning  spread  of  the  truths  of  the  Mosaic  Law ;  which 
afterwards,  though  but  faintly  understood  and  dimly  remem- 
bered, became  the  foundation  for  the  philosophy  of  Socrates, 
of  Plato,  and  their  successors  ? 

Not  long,  however,  did  this  splendour  endure  unobstructed. 
Solomon's  son,  too  confident  in  his  regal  power,  refused  to 


72  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

redress  the  reasonable  grievances  of  the  people ;  the  nation" 
became  divided ;  ten  tribes  elected  themselves  a  new  king,  and 
the  grandson  of  David  had  only  left  him  the  tribes  of  Judah 
and  Benjamin,  in  addition  to  which  also  came  the  priestly- 
family  of  Levi,  and  the  small  portion  of  the  other  tribes,  espe- 
cially Simeon,  who  lived  contiguous  to  or  in  Jerusalem.  Again, 
as  if  tired  of  prosperity,  the  king  of  Israel  found  means  to 
institute  idolatry  in  his  dominions,  and  by  degrees  oracles  on 
the  heathen  plan,  divinations,  and  similar  acts  of  apostacy 
became  so  prevalent,  that  but  little  effect  of  the  Mosaic  institu- 
tion could  be  discovered  in  the  lives  of  the  people.  They  had 
now  become  ripe  for  expulsion,  and  the  kings  of  Assyria 
removed  them  from  their  inheritance,  and  planted  them  in  the 
cities  of  Media  and  other  distant  lands,  and  to  this  day  their 
existence  is  a  matter  of  doubt  and  uncertainty. 

The  kingdom  of  Judah  became  not  so  soon  corrupt  as  the 
other;  for  the  people  of  this  division  occasionally  displayed 
a  zealous  devotion  to  the  law,  whenever  the  kings  led  the 
way.  But  gradually  they  too  forsook  the  righteous  path ; 
patriotism  declined,  idolatry  took  the  place  of  true  worship, 
and  the  powerful  and  rich  made  slaves  of  their  brothers 
the  Hebrews,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  law.  The  natural  con- 
sequence followed ;  misrule  of  this  kind  gradually  weakened  the 
state,  and  no  longer  was  the  hearty  co-operation  of  all  classes 
to  be  expected;  and  thus  was  accomplished  the  denuncia- 
tion of  a  hundred  prophets — the  Chaldeans  overran  the  land, 
led  the  kings  captive,  slew  immense  numbers  of  the  people,  and 
burnt  the  house  of  God  with  fire.  Then  sank  Jerusalem ;  then 
fell  the  glory  of  Israel ;  and  never  since  have  we  been  under  a 
free  and  independent  government,  unless  we  so  reckon  the  few 
years  from  the  expulsion  of  the  Syrian  armies  to  the  accession 
of  the  Roman  power,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  second 
temple. 

Still  it  was  during  the  dreadful  times,  when  idolatry  almost 
threatened  to  extinguish  the  last  remains  of  the  Mosaic  law, 
that  its  vitality  was  most  clearly  shown;  for  then  it  was  that 
there  arose  those  holy  seers,  the  prophets  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
Micah,  and  a  host  of  others,  who  proclaimed  the  permanence 
of  the  religion,  and  the  indestructibility  of  the  people,  when  the  - 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  73 

one  was  contemned,  and  the  other  yielding  more  and  more 
every  day  t©  the  assaults  of  enemies,  the  armies  of  whom 
seemed  almost  without  number.  Yes,  Jerusalem  fell,  the  Jews 
were  led  away  out  of  their  country ;  the  land  was  made  a 
howling  waste ;  but  our  destroyers  are  no  more,  and  yet  we 
are  left  to  glorify  the  Lord,  who  has  proved  his  power  and  his 
love  by  the  wise  chastisement  by  which  He  has  directed  us  to 
seek  refuge  in  his  service. 

Feb.  7th,  1840. 


LETTER  VI. 


TO    WILLIS    G.    CLARK,    ESQ. 


The  account  which  I  have  furnished  in  the  preceding  num- 
bers of  the  origin,  rise  and  laws  of  the  Jewish  people,  imperfect 
as  it  is,  must  have  been  sufficient  to  convince  any  one  who  had 
never  before  heard  our  name  even,  that  we  have  borne  a  not 
unimportant  part  in  the  early  civilization  of  mankind.  To  the 
learned  such  a  review  may  perhaps  be  useless,  since  he  knows 
the  facts  just  as  well  as  myself;  but  the  inferences  which  I  have 
endeavoured  to  draw  as  I  proceeded  along,  I  trust  may  have 
called  up  reflection  in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  favoured 
my  hasty  sketches  with  a  candid  and  careful  perusal,  and  con- 
vinced them  that  we  deserve  not  contempt,  nor  hatred,  nor  ill- 
will,  and  something  more  than  the  mere  pity  of  the  nations  that 
now  rule  the  world,  be  they  Christians,  Mahomedans,  or  they 
who  are  yet  unblessed  with  the  law  of  Moses.  We  ask  not  the 
pity  of  those  who  live  in  prosperity,  we  demand  not  commisera- 
tion for  our  fallen  state  from  divine  favour;  we  are  captives, 
it  is  true,  for  our  sins,  scattered  in  many  a  land,  dispersed  in 
every  corner  whence  prejudice  does  not  banish  us ;  but  we  still 
have  the  law  which  erst  our  fathers  received,  we  still  are  the 

a* 


74  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

descendants  of  the  glorious  race  of  the  Mesopotamian  Patriarch,^ 
Ask  we  then  pity  1  need  we  commiseration  as  Jews,  as  the  in-' 
heritors  of  the  law  1  no ;  for  ; 

"  More  true  joy  Marcellus  exiled  feels, 
Than  Csesar,  with  all  the  Senate  at  his  heels." 

We  scorn  the  thought  of  gentile  pity,  which  is  directed  to- 
wards us,  because  we  possess  not  the  grace  of  the  Gospel,  or 
the  gifts  of  the  Koran,  or  the  light  of  the  Shaster.  I  speak  with 
reverence ;  I  mean  not  to  ridicule  the  opinions  of  the  majority 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Europe  and  America,  any  more  than  I  in- 
tend to  hold  a  controversy  with  Imams  and  Brahmins;  I  only 
intend  to  convey  the  idea,  that  the  true  Israelite  does  not  be- 
lieve his  law  a  burthen,  much  less  a  curse  which  closes  to  him 
the  gates  of  salvation.  Our  law  is  from  God,  it  is  the  pure 
emanation  of  the  pure  Spirit,  before  whom  nothing  unclean  can 
stand ;  it  is  his  will  we  humbly  endeavour  to  follow,  it  is  by  his 
light  w^e  strive  to  walk.  And  this  you  will  call  a  load  too 
heavy  to  be  borne,  a  darkness  which  enthrals  our  spirits  ?  The 
law — a  curse,  a  burden ;  the  word  of  God,  the  light  of  everlast- 
ing— spiritual  blindness  !  No,  Christian  friends,  excuse  us,  we 
cannot  accept  your  pity,  we  must  forego  your  commiseration ! 

But  if  you  wish  to  pity  us,  if  you  wish  to  shower  down  the 
tears  of  your  commiseration,  be  it  for  the  cruelties,  the  oppres- 
sions, the  murders,  the  spiritual  slaying — prejudice,  which  have 
been  inflicted  on  us  for  centuries  past,  simply  because  we  would 
not  yield  the  practice  of  the  divine  law  which  has  been  entrusted 
to  our  safekeeping.  Why  this  should  have  been,  why  the  fol- 
lowers of  him  who  is  alleged  to  have  instituted  a  law  purer, 
more  spiritual,  more  loving,  than  that  of  Mosey,  should  have 
pursued  the  original  possessors  of  the  Bible  with  such  relentless 
hatred,  so  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  our  and  of  theiy^  law,  I  leave 
to  others  to  determine;  it  is  enough  that  the  dark  pages  of 
history  which  are  disfigured  by  the  record  of  the  evil  doings  of 
ecclesiastical  and  political  tyrants  tell  a  tale  which  is  harrow- 
ing, soul-rending,  and  mortifying ;  they  exhibit  man  with  the 
message  of  peace  on  his  lips,  carrying  death,  woe,  and  con- 
tumely unto  the  hearts  of  those  who  never  offended,  who  endea- 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  75 

voured  to  live  as  their  fathers  had  Uved,  who  sought  to  die  as 
their  prophets  had  died,  believing  in  and  cheered  by  the  salva- 
tion of  the  One,  who  spoke  in  the  flanning  fire  to  the  shepherd 
Abraham,  when  at  the  setting  in  of  the  night  He  foreboded  the 
sorrows  and  the  pernnanence  of  his  descendants.  Ay,  this  was 
sorrow  for  which  the  beloved  "  Rachel  might  well  weep  in 
heaven,  and  refuse  to  be  comforted  for  her  children,  because 
they  were  not ;"  yes,  this  was  tribulation  for  which  we  may 
ever  mourn,  and  over  which  ages  yet  unborn  may  drop  the 
tear  of  sadness,  that  so  far  should  have  been  blinded  the  brother, 
as  to  shed  wantonly,  uselessly,  causelessly  the  brother's  blood. 
This  is  not  the  place,  nor  is  this  a  fitting  opportunity  to  dwell 
at  length  upon  the  persecutions  we  had  to  endure;  volumes 
might  else  be  filled  with  a  depicting  of  the  sensations  of  horror 
called  up  in  our  bosoms  by  so  harrowing  a  contemplation ;  but 
I  must  forbear,  not  unmindful  that  in  this  land  at  least  no  Jew 
has  suffered  bodily  by  a  judicial  tribunal,  or  popular  outbreak, 
for  the  profession  of  his  religion. 

Would  to  mercy !  that  the  same  might  be  said  with  regard 
to  the  countries  of  Europe ;  would  to  mercy !  that  prejudice 
might  be  sunk  too  into  the  same  oblivion,  I  mean  the  memory 
of  the  historic  page  only,  where  now  are  sleeping,  I  trust  for 
ever,  the  records  of  the  enactments  of  "  acts  of  faith,"  which 
were  formerly  celebrated  with  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance 
which  so  enhance  the  out-door  worship  of  the  Romish  church. 
Let  me  be  not  misunderstood.  I  do  not  mean  to  charge  the 
Catholic  clergy  above  any  other  class  of  people  with  an  especial 
hatred  of  the  Jews ;  for  there  are  honourable  examples,  even  in 
the  ages  of  the  crusades,  where  the  Roman  pontiffs  and  bishops 
offered  an  asylum  to  the  wretched  Jews  when  they  fled  from 
the  sword  of  a  Philip  of  France,  or  a  Richard  of  England. 
But  still  it  is  due  to  historical  truth  to  say,  that  it  was  chiefly 
in  Catholic  lands,  and  by  persons  acting  in  the  name  and  for 
the  Catholic  church,  as  a  Torquemade  and  his  tribunal,  that 
the  slaughter  of  the  Jews  took  place.  Yet  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  religious  zeal  actuated  the  mass  to  as  great  a  degree 
as  the  desire  to  possess  themselves  of  the  wealth  amassed  by 
the  Jews.  For  these,  driven  from  all  honourable  employments 
for  the  sake  of  their  belief,  banished  from  the  pursuit  of  mecha- 


76  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

nical  occupations  and  from  places  in  the  service  of  their  adopted 
countries  on  account  of  their  dissent,  pointed  at  as  outcasts 
from  divine  favour,  because  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  founder  of 
Christianity,  (although  he  was  to  die,  as  it  is  said  for  the  sins 
of  men,  and  to  be  slain  by  his  own  people ;  how  could  these 
then  have  sinned  for  fulfilling  the  prophecies  ?)  could  not  gain 
any  importance  in  the  eyes  of  others,  nay,  not  even  bread  to 
eat,  except  by  the  pursuit  of  commerce,  money-lending,  and 
traffic.  Their  wealth  became  ever  a  temptation  to  ill-usage ; 
is  it  then  wonderful  that  the  Jews  degenerated  by  degrees  and 
grew  mean,  avaricious,  penurious,  and,  if  you  will,  deceitful 
and  cunning? — In  Palestine  of  old  we  were  an  agricultural 
people,  tillers  of  the  soil  which  the  Lord  had  given  us ;  and  the 
present  desolation  of  the  land  but  too  eloquently  testifies,  how 
industrious  must  have  been  the  husbandmen,  who  covered  the 
rocks  with  loam,  and  erected  defences  on  the  mountain-slopes, 
that  the  soil  was  as  it  were  sustained  in  the  mid-air  to  yield 
sustenance  to  the  countless  multitudes  that  inhabited  the  villages, 
the  gorges,  the  hills  and  the  mountains  of  the  then  smiling,  but 
now  howling,  land  of  Israel.  I  cannot  avoid  in  this  place 
transcribing  a  part  of  the  account  of  a  recent  traveller,  the  Ba- 
ron Geramb,  a  Monk  of  the  order  of  La  Trappe  : 

"  One  cannot  add  any  thing  to  the  idea  which  the  Scripture 
furnishes  of  this  country.  It  is  there  described  as  the  most 
beautiful  and  the  most  fertile  in  the  world ;  yet  at  this  day,  it  is 
in  general  uncultivated  and  barren.  You  meet  with  whole 
plains,  upon  which  grows  nothing  but  a  few  wild  plants,  shoot- 
ing up  from  amidst  heaps  of  stones;  and  bald  hills,  parched 
by  the  sun,  where  the  goat  can  scarcely  find  a  scanty  suste- 
nance."        *         *         *         * 

"  Others,  my  dear  friend,  would  strive  to  explain  to  you,  hu' 
manly,  how  this  land,  formerly  so  fertile,  is  become  barren,  and 
now  presents  an  aspect  so  melancholy  and  so  dreary ;  and  I 
know  not  exactly  what  the  slanderers  of  the  holy  Scriptures 
would  have  to  reply  to  them.  But  how,  in  fact,  can  he  who 
has  any  knowledge  of  history  be  surprised  that  it  is  thus? 
What  country  is  there  in  the  world,  where  fire  and  sword  have 
committed  greater  ravages?  What  country  is  there  in  the 
world,  where  more  blood  has  been  spilled,  more  carnage  taken 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  77 

place  ?  What  country  is  there  that  has  suffered  more  bv  war, 
by  famine,  and  by  pestilence?  And  at  this  moment,  when  I 
am  writing  these  lines,  am  I  not  myself  surrounded  by  these 
calamities  ? — There  is  no  doubt  that,  crushed  by  them,  this 
country  will  become  wholly  wild  and  uncultivated.  —  The 
springs  are  disappearing  beneath  ruins,  the  soil  which  covered 
the  mountains,  and  which  was  kept  up  by  the  labours  of  an 
immense  population,  is  rolling  down  into  the  plains ;  the  hills, 
on  which  once  grew  the  mulberry  and  the  fig,  now  display  no- 
thing but  bare  and  arid  rocks;  the  spots  which  received  a  certain 
degree  of  fertility  from  regular  successive  supplies  of  mould, 
now  exhibit  only  a  few  scattered  plants  of  broom,  and  a  few 
box-trees  that  have  struck  root  in  the  cleft  of  the  rocks." 

*  *  *  "  Even  at  this  day  it  seems  as  if  Providence 
had  determined  to  maintain  in  that  desolate  land  visible  signs 
of  what  it  would  be,  but  for  the  curse  that  rests  upon  it ;  in  the 
cultivated  parts,  the  wheat  is  remarkably  beautiful,  the  bunches 
of  grapes  are  enormous,  the  culinary  vegetables  so  excellent, 
that  in  no  country  have  I  eaten  belter;  and  I  could  say  the 
same  of  many  other  productions  of  the  soil." 

The  assertions  of  this  pious  pilgrim,  who  as  an  Austrian  no- 
bleman, a  soldier  in  the  armies  of  his  country,  a  monk  of  the 
austere  order  of  La  Trappe,  had  become  extensively  familiar 
with  many  countries  and  their  inhabitants,  and  who  only  went 
to  the  land  of  Israel  after  the  expulsion  of  his  order  from  the 
"  young  France,"  to  pray  on  the  spots  made  dear  to  him,  as 
the  places  where  the  early  scenes  of  his  religion  were  enacted, 
such  as  Bethlehem,  thd  Jordan,  and  the  once  proud  Jerusalem: 
— ^the  assertions  of  this  man  are  corroborated  by  other  travel- 
lers, who  have  visited  our  ancient  domain,  either  from  love  of 
curiosities,  from  devotion,  or  perhaps  from  a  desire  to  disprove 
the  biblical  records  ;  and  all  agree  in  the  main,  that  the  fertility 
of  the  land  was,  under  God,  owing  to  the  superior  husbandry 
of  the  people,  who  formerly  dwelt  in  it ;  and  that  consequently 
they  could  not  be  chargeable  with  indolence,  the  neglect  of  use- 
ful arts,  and  with  a  spirit  of  speculation,  which  aims  at  wealth 
without  labour.  No,  it  is  the  corrupting,  corroding  influence 
of  ages  of  contempt  and  oppression,  of  a  denial  to  us  to  pursue 
a  course  of  life  which  we  might  desire  to  have  chosen,  which 


78  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

have  ruined  the  spirit  of  the  Jews  as  much  as  the  fire,  and  sword, 
and  pestilence  have  ruined  their  land.  We  first  were  despised, 
forbidden  to  purchase  land,  to  live  in  other  than  the  Jew-quarters 
in  the  cities  of  Europe ;  prohibited  from  exercising  the  mechanic 
arts,  except  as  subordinates  ;  we  were  denied  access  to  the  semi- 
naries of  learning  by  the  Christians,  (though  not  by  the  Moors 
of  Spain  ;)  our  wealth  was  ever  made  the  pretence  of  ill-treatment, 
of  rapine,  and  plunder,  and  slaughter;  our  religion  was  made 
the  target  for  ridicule,  for  malevolence,  for  the  desire  of  convert- 
ing us  from  it, — in  short,  whatever  was  cruel,  whatever  was 
infamous,  whatever  was  crying  to  Heaven  for  vengeance,  was 
inflicted  on  us  for  the  love  and  in  the  name  of  Christ,  or  to 
answer  the  sinister  purposes  of  those  who  profess  to  follow  in 
his  creed  :  and  still  you  wonder  that  we  are  to  this  day  a  de- 
graded, a  trading,  a  gain-loving,  a  labour-hating  people;  a  race 
unwilling  to  become  the  tillers  of  the  soil  and  the  labourers  at 
useful  trades  !  Ay,  you  made  us  drink,  drink  deep  out  of  the 
cup  of  degradation,  you  drugged  our  cup  of  misery  with  poison 
that  slays  the  soul,  and  now  we  reel,  we  stagger  under  the  in- 
toxicating, brutalizing  draught :  and  you  mock  us !  you  the 
authors  of  our  wo,  cry  out  against  the  unclean,  whom  you 
yourself  have  rendered  so  !  You  oflfer  us  your  pity,  your  com- 
miseration !  away  with  it,  we  want  it  not !  We  have  withstood 
your  persecutions  !  upheld  by  our  Maker,  we  are  yet  a  people, 
although  we  are  not  in  Palestine  ;  and  by  his  grace,  we  trust 
we  shall  escape  the  other  dangers  that  surround  us,  let  them 
come  from  bigoted  tyrants,  illiberal  priests,  ignorant  legislators, 
or  what  is  more  dreadful  than  all,  the  efforts  of  base  apostates, 
who  accept  the  bribe  from  our  persecutors,  and  forswear  their 
ancient  faith,  that  they  may  be  employed  as  subordinates  in  de- 
partments of  the  state,  fill  the  chairs  of  instructors  in  the  uni- 
versities and  schools  of  Christians,  and  mingle  their  blood  with 
the  races  of  foreign  nations,  betraying,  by  a  pretended  conver- 
sion, their  own  brothers,  and  the  sects  to  which  they  now  out- 
wardly profess  themselves. 

Yes,  we  ask  not  your  pity  ;  only  we  claim  your  justice  !  To 
the  Christians  we  would  say, "  We  are  your  elder  brothers  ;"  to 
Mahomedans,  "  From  us  you  received  the  law ;"  to  the  philo- 
sophical rationalist, "  We  are  the  founders  of  the  true  system  of 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  79 

rationalism  ;"  to  the  lover  of  freedom,  "  Ours  was  the  first  code 
that  called  all  men  equal ;"  and  to  all,  "  That  we  are  innocent  of 
evil  designs  against  the  gentile  states  and  their  laws ;"  we  ask 
only  to  be  let  alone ;  to  be  suffered  undisturbed  to  walk  the 
even  tenor  of  our  ways  ;  and  to  pursue  happiness  in  the  manner 
best  consonant  to  our  wishes  and  our  wants.  The  evils  of  long 
ages  of  sorrows  which  no  other  people  yet  encountered  so  un- 
shrinkingly, and  still  exists,  are  not  to  be  eradicated  all  at  once 
by  the  mandate  of  a  sovereign  or  the  decree  of  a  senate,  any 
more  than  the  surgeon  can  hope  to  cure  a  disease  of  long  stand- 
ing by  simply  severing  a  limb  from  the  body  and  then  leaving 
the  patient  bleeding  at  every  pore,  faint  and  exhausted.  It  re- 
quires care,  kindness,  indulgence,  time  and  patience ;  do  not 
make  the  Jew  a  mark  of  your  sarcasm,  hatred,  false  love,  or 
pity  ;  permit  the  enlightened  ones  among  his  brothers  to  teach, 
to  guide,  and  improve  him  ;  and  as  sure  as  there  is  a  sun  that 
shines  by  day,  he  will  recover  from  his  fall,  and  rise  again  with 
renewed  strength  and  restored  vigour. 

Could  my  feeble  voice  be  made  to  reach  the  ears  of  the  po- 
tentates and  legislators  of  Europe,  and  of  oth^f  lands ;  could 
they  be  moved  by  the  appeal  of  one,  who  gladly  would  be  one 
of  the  least  in  his  Master's  household  in  the  assembly  of  his 
saints  :  I  would  beg  and  entreat  them  to  permit  us  to  enjoy  our 
peculiar  opinions  unshackled,  unfearing ;  I  would  tell  them  that 
our  opinions  interfere  with  no  one's  rights  and  sentiments,  that 
vfe  are  willing  to  serve  the  state,  and  that  we  have  never  sepa- 
rated our  interests  from  those  of  the  lands  of  our  sojourning ; 
that  we  have  always  cheerfully  borne  our  part  of  the  burdens 
and  expenses  of  the  state,  and  that  many,  very  many  of  us 
have  always  volunteered  their  aid  when  it  was  required.  Even 
as  early  as  the  time  of  Belisarius,  the  Jews  fought  so  bravely 
at  the  capture  of  Naples,  that  had  the  .Goths  but  assisted  them, 
tire  Roman  general  would  not  have  been  victorious.  When 
Spain  and  Portugal  allowed  us  freedom  and  equality,  no  injury 
arose  from  this  indulgence,  and  the  expulsion  of  half  a  million  of 
industrious  citizens  hastened  the  deterioration  of  countries  once 
the  best  in  Europe.  I  would  tell  them  this  and  much  more,  and 
then  entreat  them  to  leave  us  our  religion,  not  to  persecute  us 
by  bodily  punishments  and  exactions,  which  cannot  change 


go  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS, 

settled  opinions,  nor  to  offer  us  bribes  and  offices  which  do  not, 
and  never  did,  alter  well-founded  convictions  of  religious  truths ! 
I  would  implore  them  to  remove  the  barrier  which  is  opposed 
to  our  equality  as  citizens  with  the  Christian  inhabitants ;  but 
if  they  will  not  grant  this,  then  to  refuse  it  likewise  to  those  of 
us  who  may  claim  an  equality  with,  by  adopting  outwardly  the 
opinions  of,  the  majority.  For  can  Christianity  be  benefited 
by  bribing  persons  to  its  adoption  1  can  the  gospels  gain  in 
credibility  if  their  reasons  are  backed  by  the  love  of  place,  of 
wealth,  of  preferment  1  is  it  consonant  with  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity to  make  it  enticing  by  the  goods  of  the  world  ?  I  know 
what  the  truly  pious  of  all  sects  would  say,  that  their  religion 
preached  by  unlettered  fishermen,  who  were  bidden  to  take  up 
their  cross  (worldly  deprivation)  and  follow  their  master,  is  not 
of  that  nature  that  it  should  be  forced  upon  any  one  by  the  ter- 
ror of  death,  nor  urged  upon  any  one's  adoption  by  a  bribe  of 
worldly  goods.  Yet  this  is  the  system  of  England,  of  Prussia, 
of  Italy,  and  of  many  other  countries,  where  the  Jew  is  fairly 
bought  over;  so  much  is  the  importance  attached  to  his  con- 
version. But  in  the  name  of  justice,  is  this  acting  wisely,  vir- 
tuously, religiously  ?  Suppose  ten  thousand  should  be  converted 
in  one  year,  say  that  entire  families  should  embrace  the  gospels 
as  their  books  of  salvation,  prompted  by  the  brilliant  prospects 
of  a  grand  alliance  with  the  dishonourable  descendants  of  dis- 
honoured royal  parentage,  that  their  posterity  might  figure 
among  the  nobles  and  rulers  of  the  land ;  let  ever  so  many 
swerve  from  our  law  in  order  to  wipe  away  the  disgrace  rest- 
ing upon  our  name,  to  be  admitted  into  the  society  of  those  who 
call  themselves  the  leaders  of  fashion,  those  butterflies  of  the 
hour  who  perish  and  sink  into  utter  forgetfulness  speedily  be- 
fore their  existence  has  endured  barely  for  one  day ;  let  hun- 
dreds forsake  the  holy  standard  cowed  by  the  contempt  of  the 
world  and  enticed  by  the  hope  of  promotion  and  the  promises 
of  the  smiles  of  tyrants ;  increase  as  you  may  the  number  of 
those  who  leave  us  because  they  have  no  sincere  conviction  of 
the  truth  of  our  faith,  or  because  they  are  tainted  with  an  un- 
believing philosophy,  a  miscalled  freedom  of  rational  inquiry : 
with  all  this  there  would  still  be  many,  many  left  who  would 
remain  true  to  the  belief  of  their  fathers ;  all  the  efforts  would 


LETTERS  OJV  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  SI 

only  result  in  diminishing  the  number  of  the  lukewarm,  who 
would  leave  the  body  of  the  faithful,  like  Gideon's  band,  reduced 
in  number,  but  nevertheless  more  powerful  in  their  holy  might, 
more  united  in  their  love  of  their  law,  more  strengthened  in  the 
fear  of  their  God  !     It  is  not  oppression,  it  is  not  conversion  of 
masses,  that  can  extirpate  the  Jews  ;  we  have  passed  the  ordeal 
of  all  dangers,  of  idolatry,  captivity,  indifference  to  religion, 
sectarian  division,  persecutions,  slaughter,  ignorance,  contempt, 
dispersion,  and  at  one  time  an  almost  total  forgetfulness  of  the 
law,  and  still  we  have  been  preserved.     Say,  it  was  the  inhe- 
rent obstinacy  of  a  stiff-necked  race  ;  say,  it  was  the  opposition 
which  the  bending  reed  offers  to  the  storm  which  prostrates  the 
oak ;  say  this  and  whatever  else  you  may ;  still  we  maintain, 
that  it  is  the  Providence  which  watches  the  progress  of  the 
stars,  the  rise  of  empires,  the  eagle's  flight,  and  the  motions  of 
the  insect  invisible  to  the  human  eye,  that  has  opposed  these 
natural  barriers  to  our  destruction ;  and  that  He  selected  us  as 
the  guardians  of  the  law  which  is  at  last  to  govern  all  the  world, 
because  of  the  very  characteristics  in  our  disposition,  a  stub- 
bornness of  purpose  and  an  apparent  yielding  to  circumstances, 
whilst,  as  the  reed,  our  roots  are  struck  deep  in  the  bottom  of 
the  stream,  which  the  storm,  with  all  its  fury,  is  not  able  to 
reach  or  to  harm. — We  are  willing  to  admit,  that  the  present 
age  is  one  of  great  danger  to  Judaism  ;  the  love  of  gain  which 
laughs  at  the  restrictions  of  the  law,  the  lust  for  distinction 
which  outroars  the  appeal  of  the  awakened  conscience,  the 
spread  of  infidel  indifference  which  scorns  the  dictates  of  re- 
ligion, the  acts  of  rulers  and  societies  who  endeavour  to  make 
it  Twrih  while  for  a  Jew  to  become  an  apostate,  have  all  com- 
bined to  withdraw  many  from  the  active  pursuit  of  the  Jewish 
faith.     But  the  apparent  darkness  will  vanish,  and  the  indiffer- 
ence will  be  supplanted  by  a  firm  faith  in  God's  word ;  sinful 
desires  will  yield  to  a  thirst  after  the  law  of  life ;  and  then  we  too 
can  smile  in  our  turn  at  the  puny  efforts  of  men  who  endeavour 
to  blot  out  the  name  of  Israel. 

This  is  no  vain  boast,  it  becomes  us  not,  humble  as  we  are, 
to  boast  of  power  that  is  "not  ours ;  it  is  merely  history  teaching 
the  future  by  what  occurred  in  the  past ;  and  therefore  we 
appeal  to  the  liberal  of  other  sects,  to  leave  us  unmolested.  For 

H 


82  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

since  it  is  impossible  to  root  us  out,  since  all  measures  tending 
to  our  destruction  must  prove  ineffectual :  it  becomes  the  duty 
of  humanity,  of  wisdom,  of  that  religion  which  is  so  much 
spoken  of  and  so  little  practised,  to  regard  the  Jew  without  the 
eye  of  jealousy,  and  to  honour  him  according  to  his  conduct, 
and  not  disregard  him  for  his  opinions.  But  it  is  in  vain  that 
we  thus  appeal :  the  equality  which  the  law  grants  is  but  a 
feeble  instrument  for  the  destruction  of  prejudice. — Even  in  this 
country  there  are  yet  two  States  at  least  which  will  not  recog- 
nize as  equal  all  the  followers  of  the  Bible,  I  mean  Massachusetts 
and  JVorth  Carolina ;  in  the  first  state  (g)  no  one  not  believing 
in  the  Christian  faith  (though  this  is  a  very  ample  phrase)  can 
be  governor,  and  I  think,  professor  of  certain  branches  at  Har- 
vard University,  and  in  the  latter  a  Jew  is  ineligible  to  any 
office  whatever. 

Maryland  has  in  late  years  so  amended  her  constitution, 
prompted  by  such  men  as  Thomas  Kennedy,  H.  M.  Bracken- 
ridge,  and  John  V.  L.  MacMahon,  as  to  declare  the  Jews 
equals  ;  but  North  Carolina  refused,  when  amending  her  funda- 
mental laws,  to  regard  us  as  in  this  light,  although  she  emanci- 
pated the  Catholics  in  deference  to  the  appeals  of  a  Gaston,  a 
worthy  member  of  the  old  church  of  Rome.  It  is  gratifying, 
however,  that  in  this  wide-spread  confederacy  the  exceptions 
are  so  few,  thanks  to  the  wisdom  by  which  God  inspired  the 
great  men  who  projected  and  established  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  But,  as  citizens  with  equal  rights,  not  as 
tolerated  aliens,  we  demand  of  our  fellow-citizens  to  abate  the 
causeless  prejudice  which  so  many  entertain  for  us ;  we  ask  of 
the  teachers  of  the  popular  religion,  not  to  inculcate  any  thing 
which  may  excite  prejudice  against  us,  for  surely  Christianity 
is  not  so  weak  that  it  requires  the  support  of  a  denouncement 
of  our  people  for  its  spread  or  confirmation ;  we  request,  ear- 
nestly entreat  the  conductors  of  the  pubilc  press  not  to  admit 
articles  in  their  papers  which  can  only  tend  to  wound  us,  with- 
out benefiting  any  one.  It  is  time  to  discard  the  word  "/ew" 
as  a  term  of  reproach ;  we  have  our  faults ;  we  are  lovers  of 
gain,  of  an  easy  mode  of  living,  of  luxury  ;  but  are  we  singular 
in  these  follies  ?  are  they  not  shared  by  all  nations  of  the  pre- 
sent day  ?  is  the  Jew  more  dishonest,  more  knavish,  more  cun- 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  83 

ning,  than  his  Christian  neighbour  ?  I  believe  not,  and  I  may 
freely  challenge  the  proofs  of  the  contrary. — We  do  not  claim 
the  public  attention  as  Jews,  but  merely  as  men  ;  and  as  men 
judge  us  therefore,  and  if  we  err  punish  us;  but  if  we  act 
virtuously  let  us  go  on  in  our  own  way  !  It  is  our  business  to 
make  our  j)eace  with  our  Maker,  and  we  acknowledge  no  right 
in  any  one  to  interfere  in  what  concerns  our  spiritual  welfare. 
We  had  a  law  more  than  thirteen  centuries  before  the  Christian 
era ;  and  with  the  blessing  of  Him  who  gave  it  to  us,  we  hope 
to  continue  its  possessors  till  the  end  of  time. 

It  is  now  time  for  me  to  draw  my  present  remarks  to  a 
close ;  but  it  is  at  first  requisite  to  state  what  induced  me  to 
write  these  numbers,  which  to  many  may  have  appeared  a 
voluntary  parade  of  a  defence  which  was  not  needed.  Many 
little  circumstances  have  lately  come  to  my  knowledge  which 
seemed  to  me  to  demand  a  public  exposure,  and  I  thought  it  best 
in  doing  so  to  show  first  in  a  succinct  manner,  that  we  are  not 
so  strange  or  so  monstrous  a  people  as  we  have  been  repre- 
sented by  many  who  have  spoken  of  us  in  a  derogatory  manner 
for  a  refusal  to  embrace   Christianity.     In  the   first  place,  a 

minister  not  unknown  to  fame,  W.  C.  B of ,  has  been 

represented  to  me  to  have  inveighed  against  the  reading  of 
noi'els  in  certain  lectures,  in  one  of  which  he  is  said  to  have 
spoken  against  Sir  Walter  Scott's  admirable  book  of  Ivanhoe, 
*•  because  he  represents  the  Jewish  character  in  too  favourable 
a  light:"  singular  enough,  that  in  this  century  and  in  the 
United  States  there  could  be  found  one  man  of  sufficient  hardi- 
hood to  make  so  bold  an  avowal !  I  was  not  present  to  hear 
him  ;  but  I  have  but  little  doubt  of  the  fact  as  it  was  told  me. 
It  is  in  truth  but  a  small  matter;  but  many  such  preachers, 
actuated  by  the  same  blind  zeal  for  their  cause,  might  make 
our  situation  not  very  enviable  by  raising  too  much  prejudice 
against  us,  especially  if  we  increase  to  the  same  degree  as  we 
have  lately.  There  are  now  five  congregations  in  New  York ; 
two  in  Philadelphia  ;*  one  in  Hanover,  Pa. ;  one  (perhaps  two) 
in  Baltimore ;  one  in  Richmond ;  one  in  Charleston  ;*  one  in 

*  Since  the  above  was  written  an  additional  congregation  in  Philadelphia, 
and  another  in  Charleston,  have  been  formed. 


84  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

Savannah  ;  one  in  Cincinnati ;  one  in  Albany,  and  one  in  the 
interior  of  New  York,  besides  a  large  number  of  individuals  in 
Easton,  Pottsville,  Pittsburg,  &c..  Pa. ;  Frederic,  Md. ;  Peters- 
burg and  Norfolk,  Va. ;  Georgetown,  Beaufort,  Columbia,  Cam- 
den, &c.,  S.  C. ;  Augusta  and  Columbus,  Ga. ;  Mobile,  Ala. ; 
Natchez,  Vicksburg,  Grand  Gulf,  Miss. ;  New  Orleans ;  Cleve- 
land, Ohio  ;  Louisville,  Ky. ;  St.  Louis,  Mo. ;  and  many  other 
towns  all  over  the  Western  States.  There  have  not  been 
wanting  examples  to  prove  how  dangerous  the  prejudice  of  the 
majority  may  become  to  a  minority ;  and  it  is  therefore  ihaf 
we  would  deprecate  our  being  held  up  to  contempt,  as  though 
there  were  something  radically  defective  in  our  manners  and 
morals,  the  effect  of  our  peculiar  opinions. 

In  the  second  place,  we  have  cause  to  complain  of  unwar- 
rantable interferences  by  ministers  of  different  denominations 
witii  the  younger  members  of  our  persuasion.  The  number 
that  has  come  to  my  knowledge  is  not  very  large,  I  will  con- 
fess; but  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  it  will  be  found  much 
greater  if  a  strict  inquiry  be  instituted.     A  gentleman  by  name 

of  Adam  E ,  likewise  not  unknown  to  fame,  a  member  of 

the church,  some  years  ago  had  nearly  persuaded  the  son 

of  a  gentleman  living  at  W ,  ,  to  apostatize;  by  a 

timely  discovery  of  the  correspondence  this  young  man  was 
prevented  from  taking  a  step  which  he  would  afterwards  have 
had  cause  to  regret ;  but  not  by  violence,  only  by  placing  him 
under  the  charge  of  an  aged  relative  of  the  father,  who  laid 
before  him  the  grounds  of  Judaism  and  Christianity,  and  the 
result  was  that  he  adhered  to  the  belief  of  his  fathers.     I  am 

sorry  to  be  compelled  to  say  that  with  this  effort  of  Mr.  E 

upon  the  young  Mr.  L the  action  upon  the  family  and  its 

connections  has  not  ceased ;  and  since  then  several  of  the  latter 
have  embraced  Christianity.  I  regret  their  conduct;  but  I 
hazard  little  in  saying,  that  it  was  greatly  owing  to  their  being 
entirely  isolated  from  our  people  and  in  constant  intercourse 
■with  ministers  of  Christianity ;  and  they  have  fallen  off,  like 
many  others  before  them,  by  imbibing  foreign  manners  from  a 
constant  intermixture  with  persons  who  are  not  Israelites. 

Another  instance  which  is  much  more  flagrant,  if  this  be 
possible,  occurred  in  this  very  State.     The  arrival  and  the  lee- 


LETTERS  OJS  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  85 

turing  of  that  odd  compound  of  Jew  and  Christian,  Joseph 
Wolff,  the  so  styled  missionary  to  the  Jews,  must  be  fresh  in 
the  memory  of  every  one.  It  is  really  impossible  to  tell  from 
his  speaking,  whether  he  ever  made  a  single  convert ;  on  the 
contrary,  I  should  judge  that  his  preaching  would  confirm  a 
believer  in  revelation  the  more  strongly  in  his  adherence  to  the 
Mosaic  Law.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  not  my  present  purpose 
to  discuss  the  singular  exhibition  of  ardour  which  moved  such 
immense  crowds  to  listen  to  his  extraordinary  narrations. — 
Enough  that  he  had  large  audiences.  In  his  progress  through 
Pennsylvania  he  met  an  old  acquaintance  in  the  person  of  a 
highly  respected  merchant  now  of  this  city.  They  had  known 
each  other  as  boys,  before  Wolff  became  a  Catholic.     Mr. 

A had  long  been  a  resident  of  this  country,  and  with 

genuine  hospitality  he  invited  Mr.  Wolff  to  his  house  in  Berks 
county,  where  he  then  resided. — Mr.  Wolff  afterwards  went  to 

the  house  of  a  brother  of  Mr.  A in  another  town,  and  I 

think  it  was  there  that  the  missionary  met  a  young  relative  of 

his  entertainer,  Abraham  B.  A ,  whose  parents  then  lived 

in  Germany,  and  who  displayed  a  great  love  of  learning, 
which  his  circumstances  forbade  him  to  acquire  in  the  secular 
colleges.  Wolff  offered  to  have  him  educated  if  he  would  em- 
brace Christianity ;  but  he  honourably  declined.  Now  one 
would  suppose,  that  this  young  Israelite  would  not  have  been 
farther  tempted.     But  just  the  reverse.     Some  time  after  he 

received  a  letter  from  Mr.  M ,  the  minister  of  a  highly 

respectable  congregation,  offering  him  education  and  aid  if  he 
would  become  a  Christian;  and  I  regret  to  add,  that  Bishop 

■-  .     ,  of ,  also  lent  his  name  to  this  affair.    But  Mr.  A 

declined  acceding,  because  he  would  not  "  sell  the  faith  he  had 
inherited  from  his  fathers ;"  the  bishop  honourably  replied  that 
he  would  not  use  unfair  means  to  convert  him ;  but  I  know  not 

whether  Mr.  M acted  likewise  or  not.     It  is  enough  that 

such  an  attempt  was  made ;  it  shows  evidently  that  a  jealous 
eye  is  fixed  upon  the  Jews  ;  and  as  this  and  the  above  are  not 
the  only  instances  I  could  refer  to,  I  deem  myself  justified  to 
appeal  publicly  to  the  pious  of  all  societies  not  to  repeat  such 
attempts,  which  can  only  irritate,  but  produce  little  or  no  con- 
viction.— Besides  this,  success,  even  if  attained,  can  only  pro- 


gg  LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS. 

ceed  from  two  causes,  either  from  ignorance  of  our  religion,  or 
because  it  is  made  the  interest  of  the  converts  ;  for  I  honestly 
believe,  and  state  therefore  without  hesitation,  that  few  Jews 
ever  became  converts  to  another  doctrine  from  conviction.  More- 
over several  converts  have  asked  to  be  re-admitted  to  our  fel- 
lowship ;  for  instance  a  certain  Landsberg,  baptized  by  Ezra 
S.  Ely  some  twelve  years'  back.  It  is  certainly  not  the  interest 
of  Christianity  to  bribe  the  interested  to  an  outward  profession 
which  their  soul  does  not  feel ;  and  as  to  the  ignorant,  we  pray 
fervently  to  the  Lord  to  give  them  light  and  knowledge,  and 
there  are  always  among  us  those  whose  study  it  will  ever  be 
to  diffuse  the  truth  which  they  have  received.  In  accordance 
with  this  plan  we  have  established  Sunday-schools  within  the 
last  two  years,  for  the  gratuitous  instruction  in  religion  in  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Charleston,  and  similar  ones  are  pro- 
posed for  Richmond*  and  St.  Thomas.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  good  thus  commenced  will  be  ardently  and  earnestly  fol- 
lowed up,  until  in  all  the  world  there  shall  not  be  a  Jewish 
child  ignorant  ichy  he  is  a  Jew. 

And  in  the  third  place,  I  saw  of  late  many  newspaper  pa- 
ragraphs speaking  of  a  contemplated  erection  of  a  Christian 
church  with  worship  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  on  Mount  Zion,  the 
ancient  city  of  David ;  moreover  that  a  firman  had  been  ob- 
tained from  the  Pacha  of  Egypt  authorizing  the  society  for  the 
conversion  of  the  Jews  to  build  a  protestant  church  in  the  city 
of  Jerusalem.  Now,  in  the  name  of  Heaven,  what  do  people 
want  ?  have  we  not  suffered  long  enough — have  we  not  been 
strangers  for  a  sufficient  length  of  time  in  our  own  land,  that 
such  means  should  be  resorted  to,  to  embitter  yet  more  the  life 
of  those  who  brave  death  in  a  thousand  shapes,  and  scorn,  and 
rapine,  and  violence  of  every  sort,  that  they  may  lay  their 
bones  near  the  graves  of  their  fathers  ?  I  trust  that  no  one  in 
this  country  will  contribute  to  this  object ;  the  number  of  Jews 
in  Palestine  is  very  small  indeed,  and  their  sorrows  have  been 
heavy  enough,  without  the  insult  which  such  missionaries,  as 
are  contemplated  to  be  sent,  would  superadd.     I  will  add  no 

*  The  school  has  since  this  waa  first  published  been  established  in  Rich- 
mond. 


LETTERS  ON  THE  EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF  JEWS.  37 

more,  although  there  are  yet  numerous  grievances  which  public 
opinon  alone  can  correct. 


When  first  I  commenced  writing  these  papers,  I  intended  to 
offer  a  reply  to  several  articles  in  late  English  Reviews  on  the 
condition,  manners,  and  prospects  of  the  Jews,  written  with  the 
usual  want  of  candour  which  is  characteristic  of  many  contri- 
butors to  such  publications.  But  I  had  insensibly  extended  my 
prefatory  remarks,  that  I  found  it  impossible  to  condense 
sufficiently  all  I  had  to  say  for  the  columns  of  a  newspaper ;  I 
therefore  gave  up  my  original  purpose,  and  resolved  to  content 
myself  with  a  brief  account  of  some  wrongs  that  have  been 
done  us.  I  trust  that  I  have  exhibited  with  candour  and  truth, 
that  we  have  a  religion  holy  and  pure,  that  the  Jewish  nation  is 
neither  more  corrupt  nor  more  vicious  than  any  other  people ; 
and  that  it  is  a  hopeless  task  to  drive  or  lure  the  great  mass  of 
us  from  the  opinions  which  we  have  received  from  our  fathers. 
We  wish  to  live  in  peace,  doing  to  others  as  we  wish  to  be 
done  by ;  but  never  will  we  yield  our  holy  law,  since  no  new 
principle  of  virtue  was  ever  taught  since  the  revelation  on  Sinai, 
which  it  does  not  contain  already.  Never  will  we  forsake  the 
covenant  which  God  made  with  our  fathers.  (A) 


I  have  done; — and  in  conclusion,  allow  me,  Mr.  Clark,  to 
return  you  my  thanks  for  your  liberality  in  opening  your 
columns  to  a  subject  which  many  would  have  rather  avoided, 
and  which  has  occupied  a  space  which  might  perhaps  have 
been  filled  by  subjects  more  agreeable  to  yourself  and  your 

readers. 

I.  L. 
Friday,  Feb.  28th,  1840. 


NOTES. 


(a) — "  There  is  no  privileged  class."  Nevertheless  even  in  this 
country,  the  Christian  religion  as  such  has  peculiar  privileges,  whilst 
the  Jewish  on  the  contrary  has  an  equal  burden  imposed  on  it.  This 
is  chiefly  the  imposition  by  law  of  the  First  day  of  the  week  as  a  day 
of  rest,  and  compulsory  cessation  from  labour  thereon,  even  by  those 
not  deeming  it  requisite  as  a  religious  institution.  Now  it  must  be 
evident,  that  there  is  no  natural  law  to  compel  any  one  to  rest  on  any- 
day  in  the  week,  farther  than  this  is  derived  from  the  Decalogue,  by 
which  the  weekly  Sabbath  has  been  instituted  as  a  divine  enactment, 
consequently,  it  is  an  observance  belonging  to  the  church  only,  and 
is  of  right  no  proper  concern  of  the  state.  If  however  the  majority 
observe  any  particular  day  as  the  period  of  rest,  they  have  undoubt- 
edly the  right  to  prescribe  for  themselves,  that  they  will  do  no  manner 
of  work  thereon  ;  and  the  members  of  Congress  and  other  public 
bodies,  the  majority  of  whom  are  of  those  who  consider  the  first  day 
of  the  week  devoted  to  rest,  (no  matter  whether  their  arguments  for 
so  doing  are  sound  or  otherwise,)  can  therefore  adjourn  over  Sunday 
of  every  week,  and  prohibit  the  courts  of  justice  and  similar  func- 
tionaries from  transacting  any  public  business.  But  it  seems  by  no 
means  clear,  that  the  same  majority  have  a  right  to  bind  individuals 
who  do  not  acknowledge  the  same  religious  obligation,  to  abstain 
from  all  labour,  or  in  other  words,  to  observe  the  peculiar  religion 
of  the  majority  with  respect  to  Sunday.  It  will  not  do  to  assert,  that 
the  minority  must  not  give  offence  or  shock  the  scruples  of  the  ma- 
jority ;  for  if  this  theory  be  admitted,  then  the  more  numerous  class 
can  by  the  same  rule  coerce  a  conformity  in  other  purely  ecclesiasti- 
cal matters.  What  then  would  become  of  liberty  of  conscience  and 
the  freedom  to  worship  God,  every  man  after  his  own  manner,  ac- 


NcrrEs.  89 

cording  to  the  best  light  he  has  received  ?  For  then  we  would  come 
round  to  conformity  of  every  degree,  and  by  a  little  stretch  of  in- 
genuity, the  papal  authority,  as  the  head  of  the  Romish  church, 
might  be  re-established  as  the  arbiter  of  every  act,  if  once  the  majority 
should  profess  the  Catholic  creed.  Few  would  be  willing  to  admit 
such  a  power  in  this  country ;  and  yet  I  see  no  resting  place  between 
the  authority  which  by  an  arbitrary  decree  enacts  that  the  Scriptures 
ordain  Sunday  for  a  day  of  rest  in  place  of  Saturday,  the  acknow- 
ledged Seventh  day,  and  that  which  demands  auricular  confession 
and  extreme  unction. 

No  doubt,  the  majority  finding  the  Sunday  already  established  as 
the  weekly  day  of  rest,  and  not  heeding  that  there  are  some  who 
must  view  the  compulsion  to  keep  it  a  grievance,  and  believing  more- 
over that  to  rest  one  day  in  the  week  is  beneficial  both  morally  and 
physically  to  the  community,  decreed  from  the  best  motive,  that  every 
inhabitant  of  the  land  should  observe  the  First  day  of  the  week,  or  the 
resting-day  of  the  majority.  Nevertheless  this  law  is  very  burden- 
some upon  those  who  keep  already  another  day  of  the  week  for  Sab- 
bath ;  and  they  may  justly  complain  that  their  unalienable  rights  are 
invaded  as  much  as  by  a  compulsory  attendance  at  any  particular 
ceremony,  if  their  conviction  would  not  lead  them  to  do  so  of  their 
own  free  accord. — In  consequence  of  these  views,  several  Israelites 
about  three  years  ago,  at  the  time  the  conventidn  for  amending  the 
constitution  of  Pennsylvania  was  in  session,  discussed  the  propriety 
of  petitioning  that  body  to  do  away  with  the  clause  of  the  law  which 
operates  so  injuriously  upon  the  Jews  and  the  observers  of  the  Seventh 
day  among  Christians,  or  at  all  events  to  modify  it  so  as  to  remove 
some  of  its  most  burdensome  features.  But  though  the  petition  was 
printed  it  was  never  presented ;  and  it  is  inserted  therefore  here  to 
show  the  views  of  a  few  Israelites  on  so  important  a  subject.  Although 
the  matter  remained  thus  where  it  has  stood  so  long :  it  is  neverthe- 
less possible  that  at  a  day  not  very  far  distant,  the  Sunday-law  may 
be  yet  modified  towards  those  who  observe  the  Seventh  day  ;  espe- 
cially, if  the  number  of  Christians  doing  so  should  materially  in- 
crease, of  which  there  is  a  great  probability,  since  people  daily  take 
more  pains  to  judge  the  Bible  by  the  letter,  and  not  by  the  arbitrary 
interpretation  of  councils  of  the  church  in  by-gone  days.  If  I  am 
not  mistaken  some  important  alterations  have  already  taken  place 
in  New  York,  where  the  Seventh-day  Baptists  are  particularly  nu- 
merous. 


90  NOTES. 

"  TO  THE  HONOURABLE  THK  MEMBERS  OF  THE  CONVENTION  FOR 
AMENDING  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  PENN- 
SYLVANIA. 

"  Tlie  Memorial  of  the  Subscribers,  members  of  the  Jewish  persicasion, 
residing  within  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania, 

"  Respectfully  showeth  : — 

"  That  they  conscientiously  believe  the  observance  of  the 
Seventh  day  of  the  week,  as  a  day  of  rest,  to  be  a  divine  institution, 
and  a  permanent  enactment ;  and  as  such  they  feel  themselves  bound 
to  abstain  from  all  pursuits  of  labour  and  gain  on  that  day.  Never- 
theless, as  the  law  of  the  state  now  stands,  they  are  in  a  measure 
compelled  to  rest  on  the  First  day  of  the  week  also,  since  they  are 
liable  to  a  prosecution  for  following  their  occupations^  within  doors* 
if  a  complaint  is  lodged  against  them.  They  do  not  wish  to  inter- 
fere with  any  man's  conscientious  scruples  ;  at  the  same  time,  how- 
ever, they  are  earnestly  desirous  of  following  the  dictates  of  their 
consciences  and  the  religion  they  profess,  without  molestation  from 
others  who  differ  from  them.  They  are  well  aware  that  the  majority 
of  the  inhabitants  of  this  commonwealth  are  Christians,  who  look 
upon  the  First  day  as  holy :  still  there  is  no  particular  religion 
acknowledged  and  recognised  by  the  Constitution  and  Laws  of  this 
commonwealth;  aHd  your  Memorialists  do  not,  therefore,  see  any 
reason  why  they  should  be  coerced  to  observe  the  Sabbath  of  the 
majority.  They  must  concede  that  the  majority  have  a  right  to  rule ; 
but  they  question  the  right  and  propriety  of  such  majority,  in  a  re- 
publican country,  to  impose  religious  obligations  upon  the  minority 
which  that  minority  do  not  acknowledge,  and  cannot  acquiesce  in 
without  an  abridgment  of  their  natural  rights  and  immunities  as  citi- 
zens and  equals  of  a  community  enjoying  an  equality  of  rights,  and 
entitled  to  the  same  protection  of  the  laws.  Whilst  your  Memo- 
rialists, therefore,  are  willing  to  yield  any  outdoor  occupations  which 

*  This  statement  has  been  fully  verified,  since  the  above  was  written;  as 
it  appears  from  the  public  papers,  that  two  Jews  were  arrested  at  Baltimore 
within  a  few  days  past,  and  brought  before  a  justice  to  answer  the  charge 
of  violating  the  Sunday  within  their  own  house.  Judgment  has  been  given 
against  the  defendants,  and  they  have  been  fined  three  dollars  and  thirty-three 
cents  each,  although  their  counsel  contended  from  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  that  Congress  (including,  as  he 
thought,  the  State  Legislatures)  should  enact  no  law  respecting  religion. 


NOTES. 


91 


might  be  offensive  to  the  community  at  large  on  the  First  day  of  the 
week,  and  such  indoor  labours  as  would  tend  to  disturb  them  in  their 
public  or  domestic  devotions,  they  respectfully  ask  of  your  assembled 
wisdom,  to  insert  a  clause  in  the  revised  Constitution  for  ever  to  pro- 
hibit any  future  Legislature  from  imposing  any  fine,  or  other  penal- 
ties, upon  Jews  or  other  observers  of  the  Seventh  day,  for  following 
their  indoor  occupations  on  the  First  day  of  the  week  in  a  quiet  and 
orderly  manner,  or  for  attending  to  their  field  labours  if  occasion 
should  require  the  same. 

"  And  your  Memorialists  will  ever  pray. 
"  Philadelphia,  January  29, 1838." 

(b) — "Liberty  precludes  the  idea -of  toleration,  and  the  majority 
no  matter  how  large  have  no  right  to  claim  any  merit  for  leaving  the 
minority  undisturbed  in  the  enjoyment  of  equal  right." — This  expres- 
sion may  appear  to  some  to  be  a  little  incorrect ;  let  the  following 
therefore  serve  as  an  illustration.  Liberty  means  that  every  one  en- 
joying it  is  free  to  do  all  that  is  within  the  limits  of  the  word.  So  if 
I  say,  "  I  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience  in  common  with  every  inhabi- 
tant of  this  country,"  I  do  not  merely  convey,  that  I  have  no  right 
to  question  my  neighbour  respecting  his  belief,  but  that  I  have  the 
same  security  against  his  encroachment.  Now  whether  those  wish- 
ing to  encroach  be  two  or  a  million,  makes  no  difference  in  the  least 
degree ;  for  what  two  cannot  lawfully  do,  a  million  are  likewise  pre- 
cluded from  doing,  whilst  the  state  of  society,  under  which  their  acts 
are  done,  is  not  altered.  If  therefore  there  is  liberty  for  all,  the  ma- 
jority do  not  tolerate,  or  suffer  of  a  free  accord,  the  minority  to  re- 
main undisturbed  any  more  than  the  minority  do  the  others  ;  for  in 
the  changes  which  opinions  frequently  undergo,  it  is  possible  that  the 
present  minority  may  become  the  majority ;  and  hence  if  there  is  to- 
leration merely  at  one  time,  which  would  imply  a  right  to  abridge 
or  restrain  if  that  were  deemed  advisable,  then  the  same  precarious 
tenure  of  rights  may  be  accorded  to  the  present  privileged  and  ruling 
class,  to  be  revoked  at  pleasure  by  the  future  dominant  party.  It 
needs  not  much  argument  to  prove  that  such  views  might  readily 
lead  to  oppression,  if  carried  out  by  a  crafty  and  unscrupulous  set  of 
men,  who  might  be  induced  to  purchase  dominion  by  threatening  an 
abridgment  of  privileges  and  rights  if  their  demands  are  not  complied 
with.  Where  then  would  liberty  take  shelter  ?  since  the  safeguards 
against  the  wiles  and  passions  of  men  would  be  virtually  removed, 
which  to  prevent  is  the  chief  business  of  a  government  professing  a 


92 


NOTES. 


regard  for  equality  of  rights  under  the  law.  Hence  it  appears  that 
toleration  is  a  word  fitting  only  for  a  despotic  government,  where  one 
as  the  sovereign,  or  many  as  the  privileged  class,  suffer  certain  others 
differing  from  them  to  enjoy  certain  rights  or  privileges,  revocable  at 
pleasure,  if  this  enjoyment  become  injurious  to  the  interests  of  the 
rulers.  But  in  a  free  country,  where  constitutions  and  laws  are 
the  supreme  heads,  like  the  governments  of  the  Mosaic  code  and  of 
the  United  States,  no  one  permits  the  other  to  enjoy  rights ;  for  it 
is  the  natural  prerogative  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  to  do  all 
which  the  conscience  prompts,  provided  always  that  no  act  becomes 
injurious  to  the  common  welfare,  since  here  every  man  must  yield  from 
the  necessary  state  of  society  his  own  views  to  those  of  all  his  asso- 
ciates,  or  fellow-men. 

I  am  truly  happy,  however,  to  find  that  these  views  expressed 
currenie  calamo  had  been  long  since  promulgated  by  Mendelssohn 
and  his  friend  Iselin,  quoted  in  the  treatise  "  Jerusalem"  above  re- 
ferred to,  as  follows :  "  If  therefore  one  or  more  religions  have  been 
introduced  in  his  state,  a  wise  and  just  sovereign  should  not  permit 
himself  to  infringe  upon  their  rights  to  the  advantage  of  his  own. 
Every  church,  every  union,  which  has  the  service  of  God  for  its  ob- 
ject, is  a  society  to  which  the  sovereign  owes  protection  and  justice. 
To  deny  them  these  claims,  in  order  to  favour  the  best  religion  even, 
would  be  contrary  to  the  true  spirit  of  godliness. 

"  With  reference  to  civil  rights  all  professors  of  religion  are  equal, 
those  only  excepted,  whose  opinions  run  counter  to  the  principles  of 
human  and  civil  duties.  Such  a  religion  can  advance  no  claim  upon 
any  right  whatever  in  the  state.  Those,  who  have  the  misfortune  to 
be  attached  to  the  same,  can  only  expect  toleration  so  long  as  they 
do  not  disturb  the  social  order  by  unjust  and  injurious  acts.  If  they 
do  this  however,  they  must  be  punished,  not  for  their  opinions,  hut 
for  their  deeds' 

(c) — "  Unless  their  opinions  and  conduct  might  become  injurious 
to  the  public  weal."  By  this  I  mean  to  convey,  that  for  our  opinions 
and  the  actions  which  they  prompt  we  are  only  so  far  amenable  to 
the  views  of  the  majority  as  they  affect  the  general  interest  of  the 
state ;  and  if  they  are  not  absolutely  injurious  to  the  civil  power,  or 
in  other  words,  anti-social,  there  exists  no  right  in  any  one  to  render 
our  opinions  odious,  or  our  actions  suspicious  in  the  minds  of  the 
great  mass  of  our  fellow-inhabitants  and  fellow-citizens.  For  if  it  is 
wrong  to  persecute  or  exclude  for  the  sake  of  peculiar  religious  views 


NOTES,  «)3 

and  acts,  it  is  equally  so  to  deprive  those  professing  the  one  and 
doing  the  other  of  the  good-will  and  kindness  of  the  persons  differing 
from  them ;  for,  independently  of  the  annoyance  such  estrangement 
of  feelings  produces,  it  may  in  the  moment  of  excitement  lead  to  posi- 
tive persecution,  when  a  mob  is  inflamed  by  blind  prejudice  and  led 
by  wicked  and  designing  men  to  the  commission  of  outrages  and  acts 
revolting  alike  to  common  sense  and  subversive  of  personal  security. 
It  is  needless  to  cite  examples ;  they  who  read  history  and  they  who 
watch  the  course  of  events  are  fully  aware  of  its  truth ;  and  political 
demagogues  not  rarely  render  a  good  man  odious  to  the  community, 
and  deprive  them  of  his  eminently  useful  services,  by  branding  him 
with  a  name  to  which  some  indefinite  wrong  is  attached,  whether 
founded  in  reason  or  not,  by  the  general  mass. — Much  more  could 
be  said  on  the  subject ;  but  I  will  content  myself  merely  with  tran- 
scribing an  elegant  passage  of  Mendelssohn : 

"  These  are  in  my  opinion  the  limits  between  church  and  state,  in 
so  far  as  they  have  an  influence  upon  the  actions  of  men.  In  respect 
to  sentiments,  however,  they  approach  somewhat  nearer,  for  in  this 
department  the  state  has  no  other  means  of  producing  an  effect  than 
the  church  has.  Both  are  to  instruct,  teach,  encourage,  induce ;  but 
neither  should  reward  or  punish,  coerce  or  bribe ;  for  the  state  also 
cannot  have  acquired,  by  means  of  any  compact,  the  smallest  com- 
pulsory right  over  the  sentiments.  In  short,  the  sentiments  of  men 
know  of  no  benevolence  (by  which  they  could  be  transferred  to  the 
use  and  benefit  of  others),  and  are  not  subject  to  coercion.  I  cannot 
relinquish  any  one  of  my  sentiments,  viewed  as  such,  out  of  love  to 
my  neighbour;  I  cannot  yield  up  or  cede  to  him,  from  motives  of 
benevolence,  a  share  in  my  power  of  judging ;  in  the  same  measure 
is  the  privilege  denied  me,  to  assume  or  to  acquire  in  any  manner 
whatever  a  right  to  his  sentiments.  The  right  to  our  sentiments  is 
inalienable,  and  cannot  be  transferred  from  person  to  person ;  for  it 
confers  and  receives  no  claim  upon  property,  goods  and  freedom  (a 
part  of  each  of  which  must  be  surrendered  at  times  to  the  common 
use  of  the  state).  The  smallest  privilege,  therefore,  which  you  pub- 
licly concede  to  those  who  agree  with  you  in  religion  and  sentiment, 
is  an  indirect  bribery  ,•  the  smallest  freedom,  which  you  take  away 
from  the  dissenters,  must  be  called  an  indirect  'punishment ;  and  in 
truth  such  a  proceeding  has  the  same  effect  as  a  direct  reward  for 
agreement,  and  a  punishment  for  contradiction." 

But  suppose  the  state  as  a  body  [)olitic  does  not  act  as  the  arbiter 
of  opinions,  and  individuals  composing  a  part  of  the  state  assume  for 

I 


94  NOTES. 

themselves  the  authority  to  condemn  or  approve  for  their  own  private 
purposes  the  opinions  of  others ;  are  they  not  then  acting  in  contra- 
vention of  the  social  compact  ?  Do  they  not  actually  punish  the  dis- 
sentients by  means  of  public  opinion,  which  in  many  respects  is  above 
the  law,  since  those  who  are  to  execute  it,  are  not  only  eligible  by  it, 
but  likewise  amenable  to  the  same  power  for  their  mode  of  fulfilling 
the  trust  reposed  in  them  ?  Hence  it  will  be  clear,  that  the  Jew  has 
a  right  to  protest  against  the  intolerant  spirit  displayed  by  influential 
men,  which  is  directed  against  his  opinions,  and  may  deprive  him  ul- 
timately of  the  just  weight  in  public  and  private  concerns  which  he 
might  have  had  but  for  this  prejudice  unjustly  called  forth  against 
him. — So  likewise,  if  our  opinions  do  not  of  right  concern  the  state, 
which  Mr.  Mendelssohn  has  clearly  proved :  then  have  we  a  farther 
claim  upon  the  community  not  to  use  any  unfair  means  to  deprive 
us  of  the  possession  of  what  we  value  and  hold  sacred,  and  to  de- 
mand, that  direct  tampering,  even  in  mere  conversation,  with  persons 
belonging  to  our  church  should  not  be  resorted  to,  as  being  in  oppo- 
sition to  neighbourly  love  and  to  social  peace.  In  farther  support 
of  these  views,  let  us  weigh  well  the  following  from  Mr.  M.'s  Jeru- 
salem : 

"  What  form  of  government  should  we  then  devise  for  the  church  ? 
— None  ! — Who  shall  decide,  in  case  disputes  should  arise  in  matters 
of  religion  ? — He  to  whom  God  has  given  the  faculty  of  persuading. 
What  can  be  the  use  of  a  form  of  government,  where  there  is  nothing  to 
govern?  or  of  a  head,  where  no  one  can  be  a  subject?  of  a  judiciary, 
where  there  can  arise  no  rights  or  claims  subject  to  adjudication  ? 
Neither  church  nor  state  is  an  authorized  judge  in  matters  of  religion; 
for  the  members  of  society  have  not  been  able  by  any  compact  to 
assign  this  right  to  them.  The  state  is  certainly  in  duty  bound  to 
watch  at  a  distance,  that  no  doctrines  should  be  spread  which  are  in- 
consistent with  the  public  welfare,  which  might  like  atheism  and  epi- 
curean notions  undermine  the  foundation  on  which  the  happiness  of 
social  life  is  based.  We  will  leave  the  inquiry  to  Plutarch  and  Bayle, 
'  Whether  a  state  could  exist  better  with  atheism  than  superstition  ?' 
we  will  leave  them  to  calculate  and  compare  the  plagues  which  have 
hitherto  befallen,  and  still  threaten  to  befall,  the  human  family  from 
these  varying  sources  of  mischief.  In  fact,  this  investigation  is  no- 
thing else  than  to  inquire,  '  Whether  a  slow  or  hot  fever  be  the  more 
fatal?'  Still  no  person  would  wish  his  friend  to  be  afflicted  with 
either.  In  the  same  manner  will  it  be  well  for  every  civil  society,  if 
they  permit  neither  of  the  two,  either  fanaticism  or  atheism,  to  take 


note:s.  95 

root  and  spread  among  them.  The  body  politic  becomes  sick  and 
miserable,  whether  it  be  eaten  up  by  a  cancer  or  consumed  by  a  hot 
fever." 

"  But  it  is  only  at  a  distance,  that  the  state  should  take  notice  of 
this  subject,  and  favour,  with  wise  moderation  only,  those  very  doc- 
trines, upon  which  its  true  happiness  depends,  without  mixing  itself 
directly  in  a  controversy,  and  endeavouring  to  decide  the  point  by  its 
authority ;  for  it  evidently  counteracts  its  own  purpose,  if  it  straight- 
way prohibits  investigation,  or  suffers  controversies  to  be  decided 
otherwise  than  by  reasonable  arguments.  Nor  need  it  to  trouble 
itself  with  all  the  principles  which  a  ruling  or  oppressed  sect  may 
adopt  or  reject.  We  only  speak  of  those  great  principles  in  which 
all  religions  agree,  and  without  which  happiness  is  but  a  dream,  and 
virtue  itself  ceases  to  be  virtue.  Without  the  acknowledgment  of  a 
God,  providence,  and  future  life,  the  love  of  man  (philanthropy)  is  an 
innate  weakness,  and  benevolence  but  little  more  than  foolery,  which 
we  endeavour  to  force  upon  each  other  by  nonsensical  appeals,  that  the 
fool  may  have  something  to  bother  himself  with,  and  that  the  wise 
may  take  his  ease  and  make  himself  merry  at  the  expense  of  the 
other." 

All  we  have  therefore  to  do  is  to  prove  that  the  Jewish  religion  is 
a  social  and  benevolent  system,  to  insure  us  of  right  an  undisturbed 
enjoyment  of  our  own  opinions  and  actions,  without  being  compelled 
to  admit  the  direct  or  indirect  interference  of  those  who  differ  from 
us  in  their  ideas  of  religious  views  and  duties.  This  has  been  at- 
tempted in  the  above  series  of  letters. 

(rZ) — "  Upon  which  the  superstructure  of  good  works  must  be 
established."  Mendelssohn  expresses  himself  upon  this  point  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Although  now  this  divine  book  (the  Pentateuch),  which  we 
have  received  through  Moses,  was  properly  intended  to  be  a  law- 
book and  was  to  contain  ordinances,  rules  of  life,  and  prescriptions : 
it  does  nevertheless  likewise  include,  as  is  well  known,  an  inexhausti- 
ble treasure  of  truths  founded  in  reason  and  doctrines  of  religion, 
which  are  so  intimately  connected  with  the  laws,  that  they  constitute 
but  one  and  the  same.  All  the  laws  refer  to,  or  are  founded  upon 
everlasting  truths  founded  in  reason,  or  remind  us  of  and  awaken  us 
to  reflect  on  them ;  so  that  our  Rabbins  say  with  justice  :  '  That  the 
laws  and  doctrines  bear  the  same  relation  to  each  other,  as  body  and 
soul.'  I  shall  have  to  say  more  on  this  subject  in  the  progress  of 
this  book,  and  must  be  satisfied  to  presuppose  it  in  this  place  as  an 


96  NOTES. 

established  fact,  of  which  every  reader  can  convince  himself,  who 
takes  up  the  law  of  Moses  for  this  purpose,  although  it  be  merely  a 
translation  thereof.  The  experience  of  many  centuries  likewise 
teaches,  that  this  divine  law-book  has  become  the  source  of  know- 
ledge to  a  large  portion  of  the  human  family,  out  of  which  they  draw 
new  ideas  or  rectify  the  old  ones.  The  more  you  search  into  this 
law-book,  the  greater  will  be  your  astonishment  over  the  depth  of  the 
branches  of  knowledge  which  lie  concealed  therein.  It  is  true,  that 
the  truth  there  presents  herself  in  the  simplest  dress,  without  any 
pretensions,  upon  the  very  first  view.  But  the  closer  you  venture  to 
approach,  the  purer,  the  more  innocent,  the  fonder,  the  more  ardent 
the  look  is  which  you  fix  upon  her :  the  more  will  she  unfold  before 
you  her  divine  beauty,  which  she  conceals  by  a  light  veil,  in  order 
not  to  be  profaned  by  vulgar  and  unholy  eyes." 

(e) — "  The  observance  of  ceremonial  duties."  Mendelssohn  says  : 
"  The  ceremonial  law  was  the  bond  which  was  intended  to  unite 
de  !ds  to  reflection,  and  life  with  doctrine.  The  ceremonial  law  was 
calculated  to  promote  a  personal  intercourse  and  social  connection 
between  scholars  and  teacher,  inquirers  and  instructor,  and  to  excite 
and  encourage  (spiritual)  rivalry  and  imitation ;  and  this  object  it 
actually  fulfilled  in  the  early  ages,  before  the  constitution  (of  Israel) 
degenerated,  and  the  folly  of  man  again  interposed  to  transmute  by 
means  of  misunderstanding  and  misguiding  the  good  into  evil,  the 
useful  into  the  noxious." 

(/) — "  A  free  government."  The  following  are  the  views  of  Men- 
delssohn on  this  point :  "  State  and  religion  were  in  this  original  con- 
stitution (i.  e,  the  Mosaic  Law)  not  united,  but  one;  not  connected, 
but  one  and  the  same.  Relation  of  man  to  society  and  relation  of 
man  to  God  were  coincident  in  the  same  point,  and  could  never  get 
into  collision.  God,  the  Creator  and  Preserver  of  the  world,  was  at 
the  same  time  the  King  and  Administrator  of  this  nation,  and  He  is 
an  only  Being  who  admits  in  a  political  as  well  as  in  a  metaphysical 
point  of  view  not  the  least  idea  of  separation  or  plurality.  This 
Regent  also  has  no  wants,  and  demands  nothing  of  the  people  but 
what  is  promotive  of  their  own  welfare,  and  augments  the  happiness 
of  the  state ;  so  also  could  the  state  on  the  other  hand  not  demand 
any  thing  which  is  opposed  to  the  duties  towards  God,  or  rather 
which  had  not  been  commanded  by  God  the  Legislator  and  legal 
Administrator  of  the  nation.     Civil  matters,  therefore,  obtained  with 


NOTES.  97 

this  people  a  holy  and  religious  estimation,  and  every  duty  of  the 
citizen  became  at  the  same  time  a  true  act  of  divine  worship.  The 
community  was  a  community  of  God,  its  affairs  were  the  affairs 
of  God,  public  taxes  were  a  heave-offering  to  God,  and  down  to  the 
most  trifling  police-institution  every  thing  partook  of  the  nature  of 
divine  worship.  The  Levites,  who  lived  of  the  public  revenue,  had 
their  support  from  God.  They  were  to  have  no  possession  in  the 
land,  ^because  God  is  their  inheritaiice.''  Whoever  was  compelled 
to  wander  about  beyond  the  limits  of  the  land,  served  '^  foreign  gods  -^ 
since  this  phrase  cannot  be  taken  in  a  liberal  sense  in  several  pas- 
sages of  Scripture,  and  means  in  reality  nothing  more,  than  to  he 
subject  to  foreign  political  laws  which  are,  not  like  tliose  of  his  own 
country,  partaking  in  a  degree  oftlve  nature  of  divine  worship.'''' 

*'  The  same  is  the  case  with  transgressions.  Every  oflfence  against 
the  respect  due  to  God,  as  the  Legislator  of  the  nation,  was  a  trans- 
gression against  majesty,  and  therefore  a  state-crime.  Whoever 
blasphemed  God,  uttered  slander  against  majesty;  whoever  profaned 
the  Sabbath  wilfully,  nullified,  so  far  as  it  was  in  his  power  to  do, 
a  fundamental  law  of  civil  society,  because  upon  the  institution  of 
this  day  rested  an  essential  part  of  the  Jewish  polity.  '  The  Sabbath 
shall  be  an  everlasting  covenant  between  me  and  the  children  of 
Israel,'  speaks  the  Lord,  '  a  perpetual  sign  that  the  Lord  created  in 
six  days  heaven  and  earth,'  &c.  These  offences  therefore  could, 
nay  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  be  civilly  punished ;  not  as  an 
erroneous  opinion,  not  as  unbelief,  but  as  misdeeds,  as  wilful  crimes 
against  the  state,  which  tended  to  destroy,  or  weaken,  the  authority 
of  the  Legislator,  and  thereby  to  undermine  the  state  itself.  And  yet 
with  how  great  moderation  were  these  capital  offences  even  punished  ! 
with  what  exceeding  indulgence  towards  human  weakness!  Accord- 
ing to  one  of  the  unwritten  laws  no  bodily  and  capital  punishments 
could  be  dispensed,  unless  the  criminal  Jmd  been  warned  by  two  un- 
suspected witnesses,  with  a  recital  qftJie  law  atid  a  threatening  of  the 
punishment  consequent  to  su^h  act ;  nay  with  bodily  and  capital  pun- 
ishments the  criminal  must  have  acknowledged  tlu:  punishment  due  to 
the  act  lie  was  committing  in  express  words,  and  adopted  tlie  same, 
and  immedicUely  Hvereupon  committed  the  offence  in  presence  of  the 
same  witnesses.  How  rare  must  executions  have  been  under  such 
an  institution,  and  how  manifold  opportunities  must  the  judges  have 
had  to  avoid  the  mournful  necessity  of  pronouncing  sentence  of  death 
upon  their  fellow-creature  and  fellow-image  of  God  !  An  executed 
criminal  is,  according  to  the  expression  of  Scripture,  derogatory  to 


98  NOTES. 

the  dignity  of  God.  How  much  had  the  judges  to  hesitate,  investi- 
gate and  be  mindful  of  excuses,  before  they  signed  the  warrant  for  a 
capital  punishment !  Nay,  as  the  Rabbins  say,  every  court  invested 
with  power  of  life  and  death,  which  is  apprehensive  of  losing  its  good 
name,  has  to  take  care  that  in  a  period  of  seventy  years  not  more 
than  one  person  should  be  capitally  punished." 

"  From  the  above  it  will  be  evident,  how  little  one  must  be  ac- 
quainted with  the  Mosaic  law  and  the  institutions  of  Judaism  to  be- 
lieve that,  according  to  the  same,  church-rights  and  chuixh-power  are 
authorized,  or  that  unbelief  and  erroneous  belief  (heterodoxy)  are  to 
be  visited  with  temporal  punishments."         *****.* 

"  Not  unbelief,  not  false  doctrine  suid  error,  but  wicked  transgres- 
sion against  the  majesty  of  the  Legislator,  bold  misdeeds  against  the 
fundamental  laws  of  the  state  and  the  civil  constitution  were  chas- 
tised, and  chastised  only  then,  when  wickedness  in  its  extravagance 
had  exceeded  all  bounds,  and  come  near  unto  rebellion ;  when  the 
transgressor  did  not  hesitate  to  hear  the  law  expounded  to  him  by 
two  fellow-citizens,  to  have  the  punishment  threatened,  yea,  to  accept 
the  punishment,  and  to  commit  the  crime  before  their  eyes ;  and  here 
the  sinner  against  religion  became  a  wilful  Jraitor  to  majesty,  a 
state-criminal."       *       *       * 

"  This  polity  has  been  in  existence  only  once ;  call  it  by  its  own 
individual  name  tlie  Mosaic  Polity.  It  has  vanished,  and  it  is  known 
to  the  all-knowing  One  alone,  among  what  people  and  in  what  cen- 
tury something  similar  will  again  appear." 

(g) — "  In  the  first  state,"  &c.  I  believe  the  following  is  a  correct 
extract  from  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts  :  "  Any  person  chosen 
governor  or  lieutenant-governor,  counsellor,  senator  or  representative, 
and  accepting  the  trust,  shall  before  he  proceed  to  execute  the  duties 
of  his  office,  take,  make,  and  subscribe  the  following  declaration, 
viz: — I,  A.  B.  do  declare  that  I  believe  in  the  Christian  religion,  and 
have  a  firm  persuasion  of  its  truths." 

(h) — "  Never  will  we  forsake  the  covenant  which  God  made  with 
our  fathers." — A  person  not  acquainted  with  the  subject  may  perhaps 
smile  at  this  expression,  believing  it  to  be  a  mere  idle  parade  of  strong 
words,  without  meaning  or  effect.  He  may  say,  that  in  the  process 
of  time  the  Jews,  but  few  now,  may  gradually  wear  away  and  be  lost 
among  the  nations  in  the  midst  of  whom  they  live,  especially  if  the 
removal  of  all  civil  disabilities  brins  them  in  closer  contact  and  in- 


i^OTES.  9«) 

timacy  with  the  majority.  To  a  person  who  thinks  but  superficially 
this  will  doubtlessly  appear  the  more  rational  idea  of  the  two.  But 
let  as  look  into  the  matter  with  the  eye  of  an  inquirer  after  truth, 
and  we  will  discover  the  strange  paradox,  that  it  is  not  the  numerical 
strength  of  the  Jews  but  their  very  weakness  which  has  preserved 
them ;  and  h'story  also  feaches,  that  it  was  always  the  few  who  suc- 
cessfully opposed  the  apostacy  of  the  many.  Had  all  the  Jews  been 
inhabitants  of  Portugal  and  Spain  in  the  times  of  Don  Emanuel  and 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  there  would  not  have  been  one  of  them  re- 
maining at  this  day ;  but  their  being  scattered  all  over  the  world 
caused  that,  though  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  were  slain  or 
torn  from  the  church  of  God,  still  the  number  of  the  people  was  not 
sensibly  diminished  in  the  aggregrate.  So,  therefore,  if  now-a-days 
the  Jews  of  one  country  should  all  turn  Christians  or  Moslems,  there 
would  be  left  those  of  another  land  to  bear  testimony  against  the 
apostates,  by  a  firm  adherence  to  the  law. — And  as  an  Elijah  op- 
posed himself  to  the  idolatry  of  Ahab,  an  Isaiah  to  the  apostacy  of 
the  unworthy  Ahaz,  and  a  Jeremiah  to  his  cotemporary  kings,  and 
preserved  thus  the^  law,  although  the  state  was  ruined  :  so  there  can 
be  no  doubt,  that*  at  ^1  future  times  there  will  not  be  wanting  those 
who,  with  the  fearless  bravery  of  a  soldier  of  the  law  and  with  the 
eloquence  and  spirit  which  we  have  inherited  from  our  blessed  pro- 
phets, will  cry  aloud  against  the  degeneracy  of  their  brothers,  and 
stem  the  flood  of  corruption  when  it  threatens  to  overwhelm  the  house 
of  Jacob,  and  with  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  lead  back  to  the  safe  en- 
closure of  our  holy  religion  those  who  thirst  for  the  waters  of  salva- 
tion, and  induce  the  multitude  thereby  to  exclaim,  as  in  the  days  of 
Elijah  :  "  The  Lord  He  is  God  !"  May  this  be  ever  so,  even  accord- 
ing to  the  promise  of  the  Lord  by  his  prophet  Ezekiel,  for  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  happiness  of  mankind.     Amen. 


THE  END. 


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